Bittersweet Alliance
by ClairE88
Summary: It's the 7th year in Hogwarts for Hermione and the waves are just threatening to crush over her head. She has to marry Fenrir Greyback, unless… she pairs up with Draco Malfoy? Well, Dumbledore's got a plan..NOT HBP compliant, DM/HG, M for later chapters
1. Chapter 1

**Bittersweet alliance**

Summary:

It's the 7th year in Hogwarts for Hermione and the waves are just threatening to crush over her head. She has to marry Fenrir Greyback, unless… she pairs up with Draco Malfoy?? Well, Dumbledore's got a plan.. NOT HPB compliant, DM/HG pairing. M for later chapters.

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**A/N:** Hello dear readers, this is my first fic ever so I really hope you will like it. Any feedback is appreciated!!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

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Chapter 1

It was a sunny summer day when Hermione woke up to the sound of loud knocking on her window. After a couple of seconds she realised that it was an owl with a letter attached to its leg. It seemed very impatient, so after stretching and yawning a bit more, Hermione got up and walked to her window. After letting the bird go, she sat back on her bed, and opened the letter. On the yellow parchment she immediately recognised the neat handwriting to be Dumbledore's. The letter said:

_Dear Miss Granger,_

_It is my duty to let you know that according to hundreds of years of tradition, Fenrir Greyback, as the leader of the werewolves has the right to claim one witch whom he wishes to marry (which of course includes biting her so she also will become a werewolf). This tradition has been established in order to keep the peace between werewolves and wizards and witches. After seeing you in several battles, he developed a certain affection for you and the day before yesterday he turned to me to make his claim, which was indeed you. In spite of the ongoing war, the Order is determined not to give the werewolves additional reasons to fight us, so we cannot simply deny his claim._

Hermione was on the verge of passing out, by now she turned a lovely shade of green, she was afraid that she might get sick. Somehow she summoned the strength to read on, terrified of what the letter will say next.

_However, in the last two days the Order has been desperately trying to find a loophole in the rules, so we can get you out of this spiteful situation. We were able to discover the one and only possibility to avoid an additional reason for the war to continue without having to oblige. The tradition includes an exception, which is that the witch in question has already been claimed by a powerful and pure blooded wizard as his. The Order decided that given the current situation, the wizard should have a family that Greyback respects and even fears. Therefore we chose Draco Malfoy to be your saviour. For our plan to work, we must make Greyback believe that the two of you developed a serious relationship, for which reason the both of you will have to move to the castle within this week. We have been given 7 days to give Greyback an answer. Please let us know when you can arrive as soon as possible. _

_Thank you._

_Yours truly,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

_PS. Do not worry about Mr Malfoy's answer; I am certain that he will be more than happy to help._

By the time Hermione finished reading, she sank down to the floor from her bed and was breathing rather quickly. From one bad situation she got into another one, for a couple of minutes thousands of thoughts were racing through her mind. But one thought kept coming back, suppressing the other ones.

'…_Why me?...'_

Draco Malfoy did not have a relaxing summer. He had been trying desperately to get away from his father who has been planning to involve his son in the war as much as possible, giving him small tasks and taking him with him on the Death Eaters' little "tours". He was very determined to get himself and his mother out of the whole war; he was sick and tired of his father torturing them both. So he turned to Dumbledore, who had promised him that he would find a way to protect them both. Draco had been exhausted and completely stressed out by the end of July, but he felt his heart racing when he saw Dumbledore's owl in the kitchen window. He let the bird in quickly, knowing that his father was away, so it was safe to read the letter there. His hands were slightly shaking as he unrolled the piece of parchment.

"Get out _now_!" he yelled at a house elf that just entered the kitchen.

"Sorry, Master Malfoy…" the elf said quickly, and he disappeared with a discreet pop.

Draco started to read immediately.

_Dear Mr Malfoy,_

_I am happy to let you know that I think I found the solution to your current situation. _

As he read on, first he got very pale, then his stomach started to feel weird and by the time he finished, he positively felt like running straight to the bathroom. After a few minutes, he considered the information that he had been given and he decided that he had to do whatever it took to protect his mother and himself. An hour later he already sent back his answer and packed his trunk, ready to leave for Hogwarts.

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**A/N:** Well, that's the first chapter. I know it's pretty short, but before posting more I wanna know what you think! ;) So please REVIEW! 

The second chapter will be longer, I promise..


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

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Chapter 2

When Hermione arrived to Hogwarts, she went straight to the headmaster's office. She whispered the password to the gargoyle and when she finally knocked on the door, she wasn't sure she could go through with the plan. She had doubts about practically everything concerning her life. However, when she heard Dumbledore's calm voice, somehow she pulled herself together, took a deep breath and entered the room.

When she looked up, she saw Dumbledore sitting at his desk, his eyes twinkling at her. But this was not what caused the uneasiness in her stomach. It was the back of a blond head in one of the chairs in front of the headmaster's desk. The blond head of course belonged to the one and only Draco Malfoy, her mortal enemy since the moment she first met him. Seeing him after all that happened caused her to freeze at the door, she did not expect to see him so soon. Dumbledore looked slightly amused and just when Hermione realised that she froze, Draco's head turned towards her and he raised an eyebrow.

"What's up Granger? Glued to the floor, are you?" he sneered.

"You ought to treat your fiancé with more respect, Mr Malfoy." Dumbledore said, before Hermione could answer. Both Draco and Hermione looked at him in shock.

"Fiancé?!" they said at the same time. After they stared at each other for a second in surprise, Draco turned to Dumbledore again.

"You didn't tell me anything about getting engaged, sir."

"Well, I thought it was pretty obvious, given your situation." Dumbledore said matter-of-factly. "Miss Granger, I am very happy to see you, I hope you had a pleasant trip. Please take a seat next to Mr Malfoy." he gestured towards the other chair.

Hermione realised she was still standing by the door, so she quickly closed it and sat down beside Draco, carefully avoiding eye contact with him.

"So, now that you are both here we can talk about what lies ahead of us." started Dumbledore. "As you both know, you will have to make everyone believe that you are an item and a very serious one of that. I expect both of you to act accordingly, at least in public. This is for both of your safety so I believe it is perfectly clear that you have to take this seriously. You will have to wear an engagement ring and live together in your own suite. In 3 days Greyback will come to the castle to get an answer and you are both expected to meet him. For this to work you cannot tell the truth to _anyone_. Of course Mr Potter and Mr Weasley have been informed, it would be highly unbelievable if they did not know about the situation. Additionally it is good if we have more people involved." At this Dumbledore gave Hermione an encouraging nod.

"I believe that is all. Do you have any questions?"

"No, sir." said Hermione and she took a deep breath. Draco just shook his head.

"Very well, then. Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me. I will see you on Sunday." said the headmaster, and then he gestured towards the door.

When they were outside Dumbledore's office, Hermione started walking towards the Gryffindor tower lost in her thoughts.

"Where do you think you're going?" inquired Draco with his usual smugness.

Hermione turned around in confusion.

"Where do you think I'm going, genius?" she asked, getting more and more annoyed with the whole situation.

"Well not towards our _suite_, I'm guessing." he said, his usual smirk on his face.

"Oh, I totally forgot about that…" Hermione said, and she blushed at the way he said suite. To hide her embarrassment, she walked back quickly and told him to show her the way.

Draco just shook his head in amusement, then he led the way to a distant part of the castle. When they were inside, Hermione looked around. It was a nice room with a couch, two armchairs, a table, a fireplace and a couple of bookshelves (which made Hermione a bit happier). The dominating colours were the colours of their houses: silver, green, gold and red. Hermione would have never thought that those colours match, but when she looked at the room she realised that they looked quite nice together. The kitchen was to the right, there was no door separating it from the living room so she could see that it was pretty cosy, perfect for two people. There was one door right across the room, which must lead to the bedroom, she realised.

'_Wait a second…' _she thought. '_One door? ONE??'_

She ran to the door and quickly opened it. Indeed, it was a bedroom, with one double bed, two nightstands, a big cupboard and two desks. She tried not to panic, but as she slowly looked around, it was hard not to. Then she saw the door on the left side of the room.

'_Please let it be a bedroom, please let it be a bedroom, please let it be a bedroom…'_

she thought desperately.

She suspiciously walked across the room to the door. When she opened it, she was too scared to look up first, but then she took a deep breath and looked inside.

'_Oh, noooo….' _she thought, as she saw the beautiful bathroom with a big bathtub in the middle.

She had to hold on to the door so she won't fall. She was trying to calm herself, only it didn't seem to work this time. She spun around and bumped into Draco, who seemed to have followed her into the bedroom. He caught her in midair, holding onto her arms and smirked down at her.

"Something wrong, sugar?" he asked, clearly amused.

"There's… there's… oh no… only one…" she started, showing the clear symptoms of hyperventilating, looking up at him in shock. If his strong arms didn't hold her in place, she would have fallen for sure.

"Hmm, if my instincts are right, you are trying to tell me something, dear. Am I right?" he asked, raising his eyebrows, with a half-smile on his face.

"Umm… Yeah…" Hermione said, still confused. Then she realised that he was still holding her. "Let go of me!" she demanded.

As he did, she regained her strength and started pacing back and forth in the room.

"What's wrong, _honey_?" he asked, the smile on his face getting bigger, deliberately putting the emphasis on the last word.

"Stop calling me names!" she snapped at him, suddenly stopping in front of him. "If you haven't noticed yet, there's only one bed, which means that we will have to sleep in it together…"

"You don't say…" he chuckled. "Of course I've noticed. But don't worry, we can solve that problem easily." he said, glaring down at her.

"And what would that solution be?" asked Hermione incredulously, getting more and more annoyed with his lack of interest in the seriousness of the situation.

For a second he just stared at her, increasing her anticipation.

"You can always sleep on the couch." he finally said, grinning at her shocked face, then simply walked out of the room.

Hermione just stood there for a moment gaping at the door, but then ran after him. He was sitting lazily on the aforementioned couch, toying with something in his hand.

"How dare you, Malfoy!" Hermione yelled at him. "If someone will sleep on the couch, it is _not_ going to be me."

"Hush now, love." he said, losing interest in the conversation. "It's settled then. We'll both sleep in the bed."

Before Hermione could answer, he suddenly threw the thing he was holding in his hand to her. Hermione instinctively caught it, staring at it in disbelief. It was a small, black velvet box. She wanted to say something, but he was already in the kitchen. She stared at the box again and slowly opened it. Her eyes opened wide as she stared at the silver ring with a huge diamond on it. She wasn't that surprised. It wasn't far from what she expected. Beautiful, fancy and worth a fortune. Typical Malfoy, showing off wherever they can.

"Thought maybe you should start wearing it." came a calm voice from the direction of the kitchen.

As she looked up, he was standing at the kitchen door, leaning against the wall. She slowly put the ring on, admiring it on her finger. Then something hit her.

"How come you're so cooperative with this whole plan? How can you be so calm?" she asked, slightly shaking her head. "What do _you_ get out of this, Malfoy?"

He stared at her for a second.

"Protection." he simply stated. Seeing the confused expression on her face, he continued. "Protection for my mother and myself from the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters. Including my father of course." he shrugged. "Simple."

"So you do this for me and in return Dumbledore gives you and your mother protection? ... So you are on _our_ side now?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, I guess." he shrugged again. "I couldn't stand what my father was doing to us anymore. And what he made _me_ do."

She thought she saw a shadow in his eyes for a second, but then it was gone again.

"Oh, I see." she said, feeling uncomfortable and staring at her feet. To break the awkward silence, with one last glance at him she quickly entered the bedroom, putting the small box on the nightstand. She sat on the side of the bed, realising that all her stuff had been delivered to the room; her baggage was right next to Draco's in front of the cupboard.

'_I should start unpacking then, I guess.' _she sighed. _'This will be a looong year…'_

For the rest of the day, Hermione tried to avoid her fiancé for as long as she could. After walking around in the castle for hours and visiting the house elves in the kitchen for dinner, however, she had to return to their rooms. She got more and more nervous as she got closer.

'_What is wrong with me??'_ she questioned herself. _'He seemed different from what he was like before. He must have changed a lot. I will be just fine.'_ she tried to convince herself. It didn't really help…

When she entered the living room, she noticed that he wasn't in there, nor in the kitchen. She cautiously walked towards the bedroom, but when she timidly knocked on the door she didn't hear any response.

"Malfoy?" she called.

Still no answer. She slowly opened the door and looked around. He wasn't inside. The room to the bathroom was open, no one was there either. She couldn't deny that she felt relieved. She quickly changed into pyjama pants and a T-shirt. After brushing her teeth she quickly got in bed, covering herself with the warm blankets. Until now she didn't realise how tired she was. She fell into a dreamless sleep after a couple of minutes.

Draco was sitting near the lake lost in thoughts. The full moon was giving enough light to see clearly even at this late hour. When Draco looked at his watch, he saw that it was nearly midnight. He slowly stood up and started walking back towards the castle. He was happy that he was finally safe and was pretty ignorant about his current situation. He knew that he'll just have to deal with whatever happens.

As he was walking along the empty corridors, he thought Hermione must be asleep by now. He quietly chuckled to himself when he thought at the turn of events that brought them together like this. He realised he was standing in front of the wall carpet that hid the entrance to their living room. After saying the password he climbed in and quietly entered the bedroom.

He was right, she was already asleep. He looked at her for a second, smiling at how vulnerable she seemed. He quickly went into the bathroom and 5 minutes later he came out in his black silk pyjamas. He carefully climbed under the blankets and he soon fell asleep.

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**A/N:** Well, what do you think?? ;) As I promised, this chapter is longer and the next one will be longer too.

Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews for the first chapter, I hope you'll like this one too!

Any thoughts or advice? Let me know! Please review! :)


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

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Chapter 3

Hermione woke up to the nice tickling feeling of the sun on her face. She didn't open her eyes, it was still holiday so she didn't have to get up early. She slept really well, she thought. The bed was very comfortable indeed. She stretched a bit, enjoying the lazy morning. Suddenly, she became aware of something heavy across her stomach. She slowly opened her eyes and looked down. There was a strong hand lying on top of her. Then she turned her head to the side and saw a big mess of blond hair. Draco was sleeping with his arm on her, his head turned the other way, lying on his stomach.

'_Oh my god…'_ was all she could think.

She carefully tried to move out of the bed, but suddenly Draco turned to face her in his sleep, holding her closer. Now his face was only inches away from hers. She stared at him horrified, not daring to move at all. He looked rather peaceful like this. His closeness made her extremely uncomfortable, in fact it was uncomfortable because it felt… well, it felt _good_. It even felt safe.

'_Oh no, what am I going to do?…'_ she thought desperately. _'I have to get out of here…'_

She tried to squirm a bit to loosen his hold on her. He groaned in his sleep and put a leg across her as well.

'_Oh great...'_ she tried not to focus on the warmth that this movement caused in her stomach.

Just when she completely gave up on escaping, he yawned and slowly opened his eyes. It took a few seconds for him to realise that he's staring into Hermione Granger's face. Then his eyes opened wide and he quickly moved back from her and jumped out of bed, slightly panting.

"Jeez, Granger, you can't keep yourself away from me, can you?..." he asked sarcastically, trying to hide his confusion and embarrassment, not too successfully.

His bewildered expression and still heavy breathing gave him away.

"What?? It's not like _I _put _your_ arm and leg on myself!" Hermione yelled angrily. She jumped out of bed as well and blushed slightly at the situation.

"Well it's not my problem anyway.." he said and rushed into the bathroom, locking the door behind him, clearly running away from her.

Hermione couldn't believe what just happened. She slowly sat back down on the bed, supporting her head with her hands, her eyes still wide.

Draco was already in the shower, trying to calm himself.

'_This doesn't mean anything.'_ he told himself angrily. _'It was an accident… It only felt that nice because she was warm… It didn't MEAN anything…'_

Then he just shook himself and forced the thought out of his head, trying to focus on something else.

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In the next couple of days they avoided each other. If they did meet, mostly they didn't say anything and just tried to escape from the awkwardness of the situation. That day Hermione decided that she'll sleep on the couch from then on, which she did. When Draco came back late that night and saw her on the couch he felt unbelievably relieved and hurried off to the bedroom. In the mornings she left early, at night he came back late, they developed some kind of a routine so they won't have to see each other, which worked out pretty well.

However, the day of Greyback's visit came, and they couldn't run away from each other any longer. They expected him in the afternoon. In the morning Hermione didn't disappear, but waited for him to wake up and come out of the room. He expected her to be there so he wasn't surprised.

"Mornin'…" he said sleepily, trying to brush the hair out of his face, failing miserably.

"Morning…" she replied, slightly embarrassed at his presence after avoiding each other for so long. She was sitting on the couch, staring at her hands in her lap.

Then she looked up, which turned out to be a mistake. Draco's shirt was open at the top, so Hermione could see his muscular torso as he was standing near the door, still trying to wake up. She felt herself blush deeply and quickly looked away. He noticed her uneasiness and smirked at her, clearly amused. Suddenly, he felt a lot more awake, his predatory instincts urging him on.

"Can't resist me, can you Granger?" he asked, slowly moving towards her, enjoying the situation.

She looked up at him, his blond hair fell in front of one piercing grey eye as he gave her a suggestive look. His lips curved into a half-smile as he bent down and placed his hands on the back of the couch on either side of her.

"Care to join me for breakfast, my dear?" he asked in a low voice. As she stared up at him shocked, she couldn't deny that he _was_ sexy.

She swallowed and quickly slid out from beneath him under his arm.

"No, thanks, I already ate." she replied quickly, spinning around to face him. "I just wanted to tell you that Dumbledore sent me a letter saying that we have to meet him in front of his office at 3 o'clock."

Draco stood up and gave her his usual smirk, hands crossed over his impressive abdomen.

"Alright… I'll see you there then." he nodded at her and walked lazily to the kitchen.

Hermione sighed in relief and quickly climbed out of the room. She spent the rest of the day walking near the lake, not being able to eat lunch. At 2:30 she was already pacing back and forth in front of the headmaster's office. Draco showed up at 2:55.

"Hey, darling." he said, as he winked at her.

Hermione blushed again, to her embarrassment. Draco chuckled. He started to enjoy this. He found new ways to annoy miss know-it-all. Hermione never thought of him as the sexy stud every other girl saw in him, but in the last couple of days she started to feel otherwise, which made her utterly uncomfortable. She tried to avoid eye contact with him, which was made easier by Dumbledore, who just exited his office. He looked at them expectantly.

"Hello, my dears. Let's get this over with then." he said in a calm, reassuring voice. "We'll meet him in the Great Hall."

Hermione nodded, slightly shaking. Dumbledore glanced at them again.

"Oh, and you might not want to act like two complete strangers…" he smiled at them.

Draco walked up to Hermione and lazily put an arm around her waist. Hermione felt her hair standing up all the way down her spine. She tried to ignore it but it was hard. They walked down to the Great Hall after Dumbledore. Hermione felt herself shiver as they got closer. Draco felt it too, so he squeezed her a bit, pressing her small form against his reassuringly warm body. Hermione relaxed a bit and she smiled up at him in return. He was surprised by her genuine smile but before he could respond, they realised that they were in the Hall.

Dumbledore gestured for them to stay behind as he approached the gate. He stepped outside and disappeared from their view for a couple of minutes. Hermione turned around as she heard voices coming from the stairs. She saw McGonagall and Snape coming towards them. They stopped a few feet behind them, waiting for Dumbledore to return.

A few seconds later they saw Dumbledore enter again with three figures behind him. He led them towards where they were standing and he stopped about 2 meters away. He moved towards the side a bit, and Hermione saw Fenrir Greyback, who looked exactly as she remembered, repulsive and bloodcurdling. Behind him were two other men, Hermione had never seen them before, she assumed they were other werewolves.

"What is this, Dumbledore?" Greyback demanded. "What is she doing with the young Malfoy?"

"We are engaged, Greyback." Draco said in a surprisingly calm tone.

"Engaged??" Greyback's eyes were alarmingly red and if he could kill with his eyes… well, there would have been a lot of dead people around.

"Yes, engaged Greyback." Dumbledore said. "Which means you cannot claim her."

Hermione was visibly shaking by now, but the shaking stopped as Draco pulled her in a protective hug. He stared right back at the werewolf; he didn't break the eye contact. After about half a minute Greyback looked away. He noticed Hermione's engagement ring as well and he looked a little taken aback.

"Very well then…" he muttered. "It's very odd that your father didn't mention your engagement, Master Malfoy." he added suspiciously.

Draco glared at him with the same determination.

"But I must warn you, the moment you break your engagement, I will be back to take her." he smirked at Hermione. "I will be back…"

Hermione quickly looked down, she couldn't stand his glare. Greyback looked at Dumbledore one more time, his expression unreadable, and then he nodded to his companions and left the building without another word.

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After the werewolves left, Dumbledore called Draco to his office, where he spent the rest of the afternoon. Hermione relaxed a bit after the encounter with Greyback and tried to enjoy the rest of her summer holiday. She stayed in their living room, lay down on the couch and read a book.

By the time Draco got back from Dumbledore, she fell asleep with the book in her hand. He looked at her for a minute, then sighed and decided that she should sleep comfortably on the bed. So he took the thin blanket off of her and carefully took the book out of her hand which he put down on the table. Then he went to the bedroom and moved the blanket aside.

When he went back to Hermione, he saw that she moved around so much that she almost fell off the couch. He fought back a chuckle, carefully walked beside her and very slowly picked her up. Suddenly he felt her put her arm around his neck and she laid her head on his shoulder, still asleep. He froze for a second as he felt the sweet fragrance of her hair. He took a deep breath to steady himself and cautiously carried her to the bed. After putting her down he slowly covered her with the blanket. He quickly entered the bathroom and shook his head.

'_Whoa, what just happened??' _he asked himself.

This rush of feelings that were totally unknown to him confused him more than anything before. He just wanted to get away and clear his head but at the same time he wanted to go back to her, lie down next to her and enjoy her closeness.

He took a cold shower before going to bed and he lay down on the other side of the bed as far from Hermione as possible. He had some trouble falling asleep and after he did, he had disturbing dreams involving Hermione and himself…

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**A/N:** Hey everyone, thanks for the great reviews, they really make my day! :) I hope you liked this chapter and if you did, please review! Of course I want you to review even if you didn't like it, cause I wanna improve ;) Next chapter will be up in a few days, I just wanna finish writing chapter 5 first. Anyway, thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

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Chapter 4

In the following week Draco and Hermione slept in the same bed. They didn't avoid each other on purpose, they both tried to relax in the last days of the summer. They treated each other with some distance, but other than that they acted like old friends. Draco still teased her mostly by calling her cheesy nicknames and she fought back of course, but they didn't have any serious arguments. However, towards the end of the week Draco started to feel more and more uneasy.

'_Merlin, I haven't had sex in months…'_ he thought, shaking his head. _'How am I supposed to sleep at night when her small form is there right next to me??... Smelling so sweet and all…'_

He considered avoiding her again, but he started to enjoy her company, it got very lonely without talking to her. Then he thought of sleeping on the couch, but it would have been hard to explain to her why he suddenly wanted to sleep there. So he didn't do anything other than trying to control himself around her, which got harder and harder.

Sunday morning, just a week after Greyback's visit, Hermione woke up early and went straight into the bathroom to take a shower. Draco woke up about 20 minutes later. He saw that Hermione was gone; he assumed she went to get breakfast or something, since he didn't hear any noises from the bathroom either.

He stretched a bit, then got out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. As he opened the door, his jaw dropped, his eyes opened wide and he even forgot to breathe when he saw Hermione drying her hair with her towel still inside the shower. Her body was uncovered; she was facing the opposite way so she didn't see him come in. The glass of the door blurred the beautiful sight in front of him, but it was still clear enough for him to see her perfect curves and her graceful, slender figure. He felt as if his whole body was on fire, he just wanted to get into the shower and take her right there.

She slowly started to turn around, which made Draco come to his senses, so he quietly moved out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He didn't hear any noises from inside, so he was sure she didn't notice.

'_I have to get out of here…'_ he thought desperately.

He had never changed his clothes this fast before, after he was done he ran out of there and he didn't stop running until he was near the lake. He was panting for a couple of minutes; he tried not to focus on the growing desire heating up his entire body. He was walking around for a while, then he realised that he forgot to eat breakfast and it was lunchtime already.

He walked back to the castle, praying that he won't run into Hermione on his way to the kitchen. But when he saw her approaching the kitchen from the opposite direction, it was too late. He felt the predator inside him awaken and he could do nothing to stop it. He walked slowly towards her, a half-smile on his face.

"Oh, hey.." she smiled as she saw him. "I wondered where you disappeared to in the morning… are you OK?" she seemed taken aback when she saw his eyes.

There was something different about them that she couldn't explain. He just smirked at her as he kept coming closer. It made her stop and even take a step back.

"Don't be scared, muffin…" he said in a very low voice, which made her shiver.

"What do you want?" she asked in a defensive tone.

His tall and muscular figure mounted over her. He suddenly caught her with one arm around her waist, slammed her against the wall and got hold of her wrist with his other hand. His body was pressed against hers, she could feel his heartbeat, and she could hardly breathe. Her eyes opened wide in shock, she felt his hot breath on her neck. It was tickling her and made her hair stand up on her back.

"Now you're mine… all mine…" she heard him whisper. Her breath got caught in her throat.

"Let…" she started, but suddenly his mouth covered hers, his lips moving against her skin. She tried to resist, but as he moved against her she felt her body respond to him, throwing her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Her mouth slowly opened for his tongue that was demanding entrance and it made him moan into her as he tasted the sweetness of her mouth. She suddenly felt him press his hips against hers, and push his hardness between her legs through their clothes. She moaned helplessly, opening her legs a bit wider for him. This made him even harder, he groaned with pleasure, moving his hands to feel each curve of her body. His mouth left hers and his lips made their way down her neck, causing burning sensations with each touch. Hermione slowly opened her eyes and realised that they were in the corridor just outside the kitchen.

"Draco… stop…" she panted, and tried to push him away.

It didn't work at first, he didn't even realise what was happening. Hermione was losing control of her body again, so she pushed him away as hard as she could to stop him. It worked this time. He stumbled back, feeling dizzy from what just happened.

"What the…" he said astonished. They stared at each other panting for a moment, then Hermione regained her strength.

"What do you think you're doing?! We are in a corridor.."

"Oh, don't tell me you didn't like it." he smirked at her. "Let's take it to the bedroom then…" he said, approaching her again.

She didn't wait for him to get to her this time, she muttered something like "Umm, I have to go now…" and ran off in the opposite direction. Draco stared after her in disbelief, and after she disappeared, he leaned against the wall resting his head against it, trying to forget what just happened. After a couple of minutes he smiled to himself.

'_Oh, you're not getting away that easily, love…'_

_--_

Hermione was still panting when she got to the lake after running as fast as she could for about ten minutes. She couldn't stop thinking about what happened between her and her _fiancé_ (that word still made her stomach twist uncomfortably). She couldn't figure out why Draco acted like that and more importantly, why it made her feel the way it did. That was what really caused her shiver and pace back and forth by the lake in utter confusion. Finally, she decided that it is best if she avoids Draco for as long as she can.

She waited outside, still frustrated, until the sun disappeared and it got completely dark outside. She gathered her strength and walked back to their "suite", but she was cautious this time and had her wand in her hand.

Draco was getting extremely impatient as he waited for Hermione in their living room and when he finally heard distant footsteps, he quickly moved next to the door. When Hermione slowly opened the door, she found the living room empty and the fire in the fireplace only provided a small amount of light, so she didn't notice when a shadow crept behind her slowly. When he grabbed her by the waist and held onto her possessively she screamed in shock, but she was quick enough to spin around and break free from his grip. She held her wand right to his heart, which made him gasp in surprise.

"You touch me one more time, Draco Malfoy, and I _swear_ I'll hex your bloody ass off, you annoying little git, so SOD OFF!!" Hermione was panting heavily and the look on her face promised that she'll do just that.

Draco couldn't help but crack a little smile at her expression and her sudden outburst, but he quickly wiped it off before she could live up to those things she just mentioned. He slowly raised his hands as a sign of surrender and slowly licked his lips as he took in her slightly red cheeks and still heaving chest.

"Calm down, Granger." he slowly said, keeping eye contact with her. "I won't touch you again, I promise, just lower your wand."

Seeing the look of regret on his face, Hermione started to calm down and the thought that she might have overreacted a bit crossed her mind briefly. Only briefly though, since she quickly remembered what he had done just a few hours earlier. She still started to lower her wand slowly, still eyeing him suspiciously.

"That's it, just lower it. Thank you. You don't have to worry about me, I promise." he continued soothing her, but a mischievous smile slowly took the place of the friendly, reassuring one as he continued. "Although I love it when you're feisty, sweetheart."

"Don't make me hex you!" Hermione said tiredly, but her eyes still threw daggers at him. "You'll sleep on the couch until you prove to be trustworthy enough to come back to the bedroom." she added.

Then she made her way to the bedroom, but just before she could step in, she heard his voice once again.

"You can't deny that you liked it though." he teased, quickly ducking from the hex she sent his way before slamming the bedroom door after herself. She put up all kinds of wards she could think of to keep him out of the room. It was half an hour later that she was finally able to get to bed after a calming shower, and she fell asleep peacefully.

Draco was already lying down on the couch; he was reading a book from one of the shelves in the room, covered in a blanket that he transformed earlier from his coat. He didn't give up on his newfound attraction though, a fresh idea just started to form in his head.

--

**A/N:** That's another chapter done… Actually I already finished chapter 5, but I want to have chapter 6 ready before I upload it. I try to upload as quickly as I can, since the chapters are not that long, plus I have a lot of time now before I go on holiday.

I hope you liked this one! Thank you all for the reviews, they make me really happy! :D


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR

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Chapter 5

Hermione made sure that she was nowhere near Draco until school started, which was only a couple of days away anyway. She was still confused, but not only about his behaviour (that still played a major part, though). Her reaction to him was almost just as new to her but she was determined to figure it out and then deal with it.

Draco didn't really try hard to make any contact with her, since he knew that when school started they would have to make a show of it anyway, which was completely fine by him. Whenever he thought about Potter and Weasley's face at them parading around as a couple, he couldn't help chuckling.

'_This ought to be a LOT of fun…'_ he thought giddily.

Finally, the day of the arrival of the other students came, and Draco made sure that he was in their living room to meet his fiancé so they could greet them together. When Hermione exited the bedroom she looked quite sick, kind of pale and on the verge of crying too. He couldn't help worrying a bit as he turned to her.

"Hey, are you OK?" he asked, sincerely concerned.

She contemplated shouting at him to make herself feel a little better, but after seeing him stand and walk up to her, looking seriously worried, she dismissed the idea.

"Yeah, I'm fine." she sighed. "It's just that we have to tell everyone today. It's a bit distressing for me…"

"Oh, that." he grinned, a bit relieved. "I'm kind of looking forward to it." he winked at her.

"And why am I not surprised?" Hermione raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms before her chest. Draco noticed that she cracked a small smile, though. He chuckled.

"Well, my dear fiancé, you seem to know me like the back of your hand." he teased. "But what are you so worried about? Your precious little friends, AKA Potty and the Weasel already know _and_ the teachers as well."

"Are you honestly trying to make me feel better?" Hermione asked incredulously. "Seriously Malfoy, if I didn't know any better, I would be forced to think that you are actually trying to be _nice_ to me." she added playfully.

"Ouch, Granger. That really hurt." he suddenly moved his hands over his heart in mock hurt, making a face. He even stumbled back a bit for added effect. "Can't an incredibly handsome, smart and witty guy be kind to his beloved?"

Hermione threw her head back in laughter at this. Draco was amazed at how nice it felt to make her laugh. It made him feel all warm inside as he smiled at her.

"Yes, of course he can." Hermione finally answered. "And when I meet one of those guys, that's exactly how I'll expect them to act." she winked at him and walked past him towards the kitchen to eat something before the big announcement (which by the way still made her shiver when she thought about it).

"Touché." Draco said before shouting after her. "Hurry up, darling; I really don't want to miss the sorting ceremony!"

--

Twenty minutes later they were standing in the Entrance Hall in front of the closed doors of the Great Hall. Hermione was slightly trembling, she knew the sorting ceremony would start soon and the older students were already inside, waiting impatiently. Draco turned his head towards her and put his arm around her waist, pulling her against him. For some mysterious reason they both had butterflies in their stomach at this movement.

"Ready, Granger?" he smirked down at her. "Your procrastination kind of worked out well for us, since now when we enter, _everyone_ in there will be looking at us because they are expecting the first year students to come in." he squeezed her to him a bit.

"Well, that's just great." Hermione murmured in response, trying to get her mind off of what they were about to do and also of the nice tingling feeling she experienced everywhere where her body was in contact with Draco's.

Draco ignored her comment, and smiled brightly at her.

"Showtime!" he announced before pushing the doors open.

--

Harry and Ron were sitting at the Gryffindor table among the other students, looking around impatiently as the minutes went by.

"Where is she?" whined Ron, tugging at Harry's sleeve. "She should be here by now! Do you think that stupid git did something to her? Shouldn't we go looking for her or something?"

"Calm down, Ron!" Harry pulled his sleeve out of his hands impatiently. "She'll be here, don't worry. She can take care of herself, and you know it." he added, but his anxious tone and nervous expression betrayed him.

"What is going on? Where's Hermione?" asked Ginny for the thousandth time that day from across the table. "I know you're hiding something from me!"

"We already told you, Gin, she's fine." said Ron, clearly irritated. "She'll be here any minute now…"

Then suddenly the whole room fell silent. Harry was looking around for a minute to see what was going on, and then he saw that the doors opened. First he thought that the first years were coming in, but then as he stood up a bit to see better, he realised that there were only two people standing at the door. They both looked awfully familiar.

"It's Hermione!" shouted Ginny in delight. "Oh, she's with… _What?!_" her eyes widened in realisation.

By this time most of the students recognised the newcomers as well, and just as quickly as they fell silent, now everyone started talking at the same time. However, after a minute Dumbledore stood up and silence fell once again.

"Dear students! Before the sorting ceremony, I have an announcement to make." his reassuring voice immediately caught everyone's attention. "Two of our seventh year students have decided to join their lives in holy matrimony and are currently engaged. Give a round applause to Hermione Granger of Gryffindor and Draco Malfoy of Slytherin!" he smiled warmly at the couple and started clapping enthusiastically.

Harry felt a bit nauseous by the time Dumbledore finished speaking and turned to Ron, who seemed to be on the verge of passing out. As he looked around, everyone around him was either gaping at the couple with their mouths open or just staring at Dumbledore in disbelief. There were also a few who actually fell out of their chairs, like Neville who seemed to have fainted at the news.

For a few seconds there was complete silence apart from Dumbledore's clapping, then the professors seemed to have woken up and joined him. After a while most students followed their example, but almost everyone still had a shocked expression on their faces. Finally Harry noticed some commotion in the direction of the Slytherin table, soon there were shouts coming from nearly every table.

"That's impossible"

"You're lying!"

"Prove it!"

Harry turned to see the couple's reaction and a second later he wished he wouldn't have. Everyone fell silent as they watched Draco Malfoy's first kind of bored expression turn into an evil grin as he turned to Hermione (who in Harry's opinion looked rather frightened). Draco suddenly grabbed the back of Hermione's head and pulled her towards him, all the while keeping his other hand on her back. Then he joined their lips in a swift movement, moving his mouth against hers. After a second of shock, Hermione seemed to react to his actions, since she moved her hands to his shoulders and pulled him closer. As the kiss became rather passionate, loud cheering swept across the hall, students were whistling and clapping from all directions. Harry turned to Ron for mental support, then followed his gaze and looked at Ginny in disbelief as the girl was cheering enthusiastically for her friend.

Then to Harry's relief (and judging by his loud sigh, from Ron's as well), Hermione seemed to have realised that the whole student body along with the teachers were staring at them and quickly pushed on Draco's chest, who let go of her with a rather satisfied look on his face. Hermione started walking quickly towards Harry and Ron, but Draco grabbed her arm and turned her around, whispering something in her ear before giving her one last kiss and walking lazily towards the Slytherin table. Hermione smiled at him in response and went to take her usual place next to Harry and Ron.

--

When Draco opened the door, Hermione felt her breath getting caught in her throat. As they stepped inside, everyone fell silent and all heads were turned towards them, either shock or a disbelieving expression on their faces. Draco held her even closer to him, which was good; otherwise she thought she might have fallen. She looked up at him in hesitation, as if to ask what was next.

As Hermione looked at him, Draco felt that she was looking at him for answers, which he couldn't give, since he was just as lost as she was. He was determined not to show it though, so he stuck his nose up looking down at everyone, as if to show that he was superior to all of them. The questioning looks didn't disappear though, so he was extremely relieved when Dumbledore stood and started talking, he felt a weight lifting from his shoulders.

Hermione felt paralysed, she could only compare the feeling to being stunned so she expectantly moved her hands a bit to test if she could still move. When she finally looked up, she noticed the shocked faces turning to her, they looked traumatised. She didn't notice that Dumbledore stopped speaking and the room started clapping slowly. Then she heard it. People shouting at them. Just when she was about to turn to Draco to see what the fuss was about, she felt him turn towards her and pulling her to him. As he grabbed the back of her head possessively, she had a feeling that she was in trouble as she felt electric shocks running through her body, originating from the place where Draco was touching her.

But before she could comprehend what on earth was going on, she saw a flash of stormy grey eyes which seemed to enchant her and then all she felt was extremely soft lips moving against hers. Then came the complete blackout for her brain, and her body seemed to take over.

When Draco felt her surrender and even cooperate with his actions, he relaxed completely, forgetting the great number of people staring at them, enjoying the moment. As they both melted into each other's embrace, he felt like he was in heaven. But suddenly, he felt two small and soft, yet powerful hands pressing against his chest. As he realised what was going on, he let go of Hermione and smirked at the stunned, but cheering faces, obviously proud of himself.

Hermione felt quite shaken after the public, yet exceedingly intimate kiss and also rather embarrassed when she saw all the faces locked on the two of them. She decided that it was about bloody time to get out of the centre of attention. She even forgot that Draco was still standing beside her, so she hurried towards the table of her house. Then she felt the iron grip on her wrist, which twisted her back around and she felt Draco's hot breath tickling her ear as he whispered to her.

"Don't forget why we're doing this, cupcake." he warned her. "We have to make sure that it looks real, or you're in _big_ trouble."

Then he softly kissed her and she smiled at him, realising that he was totally right. She didn't know if she should be happy or annoyed about that yet. As he lazily sauntered off towards his table, after one last glance at him she quickly made her way to her friends and sat down beside them.

--

"Are you alright?" Harry asked worriedly as Hermione sat down next to him. "We were scared he might do something to you…"

Hermione bitterly smiled to herself. '_That he did…'_ she thought as she looked over at Draco at the Slytherin table. He was talking quietly with his "friends".

"No, I'm fine." she smiled weakly at Harry as she whispered to him. "He's really helping me out, as you already know." she added, making sure that no one heard them.

"Yeah, but…" Ron started, leaning over Harry to see her better.

"Ron, can we talk about this later?" she pointedly asked him, giving him a meaningful look.

She looked over at Ginny and her other friends, who seemed to be bursting to ask her all kinds of questions concerning this astounding new turn of events. Then she looked at Dumbledore, who started talking again, so she turned to Ginny.

"I'll tell you everything after the sorting ceremony, okay?" she whispered quickly, not wanting to disturb the speech of the headmaster.

Ginny looked quite disappointed at this, but then nodded in agreement and gave Hermione a small smile. "_Thanks._" Hermione mouthed to her.

After the ceremony, all the delicious food appeared in front of them, and the boys immediately dug in, forgetting about everything else. Ginny and the other girls in her year, Parvati and Lavender for example, started firing their questions at her, and she gave in with a sigh. She tried to explain everything as fully as she could, of course the fact that the whole thing was a lie made it much harder for her. She hated lying to her friends, but she knew that her life depended on this, so she wanted to make sure that they believed that she was completely in love with Draco Malfoy. When they finally sat back, somewhat satisfied with her answers, and started to eat, Hermione sighed in relief.

'_I must be a better liar than I thought.' _she thought to herself, amused. _'If they really believe that _I_, Hermione Granger am in love with Draco Malfoy, ultimate bad guy, potential Death Eater, I really must be a bloody fantastic liar…_'

She looked over at her best friends, still stuffing their faces with all kinds of food she thought should not go together, and couldn't help smiling. Harry looked up at her and smiled back, half a chicken leg sticking out of his mouth.

"Um glab you OK, Humionee." he managed to get out through the chicken leg.

Hermione burst out laughing at this, and couldn't help thinking how lucky she was for having friends like Harry and Ron. And Ginny of course, who was currently giggling at Harry's display of the food in his mouth.

Draco turned his head towards the Gryffindor table when he thought he heard the laugh of the subject of his attraction. He was right, he saw her throw her head back in laughter, her curly hair flying around her head and he smiled slightly.

'_Just wait till tomorrow, my dear…_' he thought smugly, a smirk plastered on his face as he still looked at her from under a lock of hair that fell in front of his eyes. '_You'll be making other noises soon._'

--

**A/N:** Hey, everyone, sorry for the slight delay, I'm a bit struggling with the next chapter.. But this one is quite long, so I'm happy! ;)

Hope you liked it, please review!! Reviews make me a lot more motivated! ;)


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR

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Chapter 6

The next day seemed to have started out normal. Hermione stretched sleepily as she remembered that she had to meet up with the Head Boy, Anthony Goldstein from Ravenclaw (they were announced at the feast by Dumbledore), before the first lesson to agree on a time they can meet and discuss Head duties. As she thought of the events of the night before, she was pretty satisfied. Draco was fairly bearable; they walked back to their rooms together. In fact, it was a bit unnerving that he was being nice to her. It made her think that he's planning something particularly evil.

As she walked out of the bedroom after a refreshing shower, she found Draco waiting for her. She informed him that she had to go to breakfast earlier to meet Anthony.

"Oh, right…" Draco said, his brows furrowed, trying to recall who the hell Anthony was and why she had to meet him. "Why, again?"

"You're hopeless." Hermione announced cheerily. "He's Head Boy, remember? We have to discuss things so we have to set up an appointment." she almost made it seem like it was a bloody business meeting or something.

Draco didn't even try to hide that he was annoyed.

"What about our very important… umm, fake relationship duties?" he improvised.

"Okay, nice try, Malfoy.." Hermione raised an eyebrow. "And what would those be?"

"Oh, not much." Draco grinned. "Just snogging in public and such." he winked at her.

"I don't have time for this…" Hermione said tiredly, hurrying out of the room, leaving an astonished Draco behind. He was gaping at the door in disbelief.

'_Oh, so that's how we'll play, Granger. How dare she walk out on me like that…'_ he thought grimly. _'Good to know, very good to know indeed.'_

_--_

Draco was glaring at Hermione angrily during breakfast. He followed her after she left their room and watched her talk to that stuck up looking Goldencrantz or Rosenstein or whatever his name is. That git even made her laugh and touched her arm in a friendly way. Draco was beyond pissed. People didn't just touch his things without consequences. He'll have to pay, and he'll have to pay big-time, Draco decided.

'_And how dare SHE?'_ he fumed to himself. _'We're supposed to be playing our parts! But does the little unbelievably gorgeous know-it-all realise that? Nooo…'_

As he was glaring daggers first at Hermione and then Rosenstein, his expression turned murderous, and the piece of toast he was holding in one hand got completely crushed and fell on his plate as mere crumbs. His behaviour even got Pansy's attention, who clearly decided to completely ignore him after the announcement the day before. The other Slytherins already got past that, since whatever Draco did was unquestionable. They chatted away while eating, not noticing Draco's quietness.

"Draco, what's wrong?" Pansy whined next to him. "Did you finally break it off with the Mudblood? 'Cause I'm willing to forgive you…" she babbled on with a hopeful expression on her face.

When Draco didn't react after the first couple of minutes, she started tugging at his shirt. This got Draco's attention, but obviously he was not happy about the distraction, judging by the sinister look on his face. Though, Pansy seemed to be oblivious to this.

"Draco? Did you even hear me?" she continued as he now turned his glare at her. "Did you dump the Mudblood alrea…" she was cut short however, because the _I'll-murder-you-right-now-if-you-don't-shut-up_ look on Draco's face silenced her.

"What did you just call my fiancé?..." Draco's deadly stare and his ice cold tone basically served as huge neon signs above his head saying **"WARNING! If you say the wrong thing, I'll RIP YOUR HEART OUT!"**. Everyone around Draco who heard him suddenly seemed to have remembered that they had to be somewhere else and left in a heartbeat. But apparently Pansy was as aware as a sheep would have been, and carried on.

"You know, the Mudblood. I can't believe you are engaged to her…" but she couldn't finish, because that was when Draco's spell hit her right between her eyes. Suddenly, her ears started to grow, and they had white fur growing on them. She looked at Draco in shock, who smirked right back at her; finally he could relieve his anger somehow. Pansy had tears in her eyes by now, as she realised that she started growing huge front teeth and circular horns. By now, everyone around her was rolling around in laughter; the uproar was growing quickly as the other houses saw her as well.

She tried to shout desperately, but only a noise that sounded like "Baaa-baaa" came out of her mouth. Her eyes opened wide and her hands quickly covered her mouth.

"Look, Pansy turned into a sheep!" Ron shouted to Harry and Hermione, trying to communicate through the laughter and shouting of the others. Harry and Hermione looked at each other questioningly, then shrugged and stood up to see what Ron was talking about. They were quick enough to see Pansy run crying from the hall, McGonagall and a couple of teachers running after her.

Hermione looked at the Slytherin table, and saw Draco roaring with laughter in the middle of the commotion. She narrowed her eyes in understanding, and followed McGonagall with her eyes as she made her way back to Draco. The Hall fell silent once again. It was obvious that Draco was trying to control himself, keeping the smile from coming back to his face.

"What was that about, Mr Malfoy?" McGonagall glared at him, she obviously didn't find the situation as extremely funny as he did. "I demand explanation NOW."

"Well, now at least her appearance and her intelligence match." Draco said, trying very hard not to burst out in laughter, provoking laughter from certain parts of the Hall.

"In that case, you'll have detention every Saturday with me for four weeks and I'll also take 100 points from Slytherin." McGonagall said, raising her eyebrows, starting to turn back to the teachers' table.

"No, wait professor!" Draco said quickly, suddenly sensing the seriousness of the situation. "I did that because she insulted my fiancé." he said looking down, as McGonagall turned back to him. Several students looked at Hermione at this, who blushed slightly.

"Did she really?" McGonagall asked, eyeing Draco suspiciously. Draco nodded. "Well, in that case you don't get detention Mr Malfoy. The points are still deducted though. And no arguing!" she added sternly, as Draco opened his mouth to speak.

Draco nodded in defeat, muttering "Sorry, professor…".

Slowly everyone returned to their breakfast, but they only had a couple of minutes left before classes, so Hermione quickly packed her things and left Harry and Ron to stuff everything that remained on the table into their mouths.

--

They had Transfiguration first, this year the Gryffindors had it together with the Slytherins. Hermione was the first one in the classroom; she started unpacking her quills and parchments as the other students started showing up. Draco arrived before Harry and Ron and took the opportunity to take the seat next to Hermione's. As Hermione gave him an incredulous look, Draco looked at her pointedly, reminding her of their situation. As she sighed in defeat, he slowly put his arm around her waist, pulling her closer causally. He was just waiting for the right moment, which came exactly when Harry and Ron walked in.

Hermione didn't notice though, so she looked at Draco suspiciously as he leaned closer. When he placed a small and gentle kiss on her neck and then blew in her ear, she shivered and felt goose bumps on her back, her breath getting hitched in her throat. After the first shock, she looked at him questioningly and got lost for a second in his lust-filled eyes as he gave her a seductive look. Then she felt like she was drawn to him by a magnet or something as they both leaned forward and their lips slowly met.

Draco's hand moved up to hold her head as he moved closer and dipped her head back slightly to deepen the kiss. As he did this, Hermione automatically opened her mouth a bit, granting his eager tongue access to hers. Her arms unconsciously moved to his head, getting entangled in his soft, silky hair.

Harry and Ron stood open mouthed in the doorway, staring at them with eyes wide open, along with most of the other students in the room. Ron's face slowly turned green as the couple's actions got more and more passionate.

"Why can't I look away?!" Harry muttered, mostly to himself, but Ron heard it and thought that it accurately described his own feelings at that moment.

To their relief, McGonagall chose that moment to enter the classroom. She looked around for a second before she found the cause of the silent observation.

"Mr Malfoy, Miss Granger, that's quite enough." she said impatiently, as she made her way to her desk. "Don't force me to give you detention for the high disturbance of my students' cerebration." she shook her head disapprovingly as Hermione jumped away from Draco, looking like a deer caught in the headlight. "And Mr Malfoy, be careful, you've already had a warning today." she added, erasing the smug look from Draco's face.

During the lesson, Harry and Ron seemed to have regained consciousness; they even gave Hermione small but reassuring smiles. Hermione felt quite relieved that she got away with that, but she still stared daggers at Draco whenever he looked at her. She couldn't stop him from smirking though…

--

Later that day, after their classes finished, Draco and Hermione both received a short letter from Dumbledore inviting them to his office for a quick meeting. They met in front of the gargoyle. Draco winked at Hermione suggestively, but she simply ignored him, entering the headmaster's office. Draco followed her, smiling to himself.

"Good evening, my dears!" Dumbledore greeted them with a warm smile.

"Good evening, professor!" they answered and they sat in the chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk, looking at him expectantly.

"I'm afraid, I have some bad news…" he started, looking at his hands that he rested on his desk. Draco and Hermione looked at each other worriedly and then looked back at Dumbledore, waiting for him to continue. "As you know, the Order has been keeping an eye on Hogwarts as well as other important places. They reported to me earlier today that they suspect the presence of a spy in the school, sent or hired by Greyback himself, to prove to him that your relationship is a fraud." Hermione's eyes widened in fear, Draco glanced at her anxiously. "As we do not know the identity of this spy, there is not much we can do about the situation, apart from being extra careful about being discovered. Also, in the light of the seriousness of these new circumstances, I strongly recommend that you got married as soon as possible."

Hermione couldn't believe her ears. She gasped loudly as she heard Dumbledore say the word "married" and looked at Draco, clearly in despair. Draco personally didn't really think that this would change much about the state they were in now; they already lived together and had to act like they were in love. But for some strange reason he wanted to comfort Hermione, so he turned to Dumbledore.

"But professor, would that really make Greyback believe that we are serious about this?" he inquired calmly. "I mean the fact that we are engaged clearly hasn't."

"Well, I believe that it is important that we at least try." Dumbledore answered, with a curious glint in his eyes. "Furthermore, a proper wizard-witch wedding will create a special bond between you two, which is also good for safety reasons, because there will be a strong connection between you." he added. "However, this is your choice entirely; you can decide on your own and let me know the answer."

Hermione seemed contemplative for a couple of seconds, then looked straight at Dumbledore.

"If this is what it takes to protect myself from that monster, I will do it gladly, professor." she said bravely. "If Draco agrees of course." she added, looking at Draco.

"I agree as well." Draco nodded, smiling at Hermione reassuringly. "When should we do it then?" he asked, glancing at Dumbledore.

"Well, I believe we should give it about two months, considering all the planning and preparing that must be done. Also it will be more believable if we wait a bit first." Dumbledore said.

"Alright then." Hermione agreed, shivering slightly. "Two months it is." Draco simply nodded.

"That's settled then." Dumbledore concluded, smiling brightly. "If anything else occurs, I'll let you know."

Draco and Hermione left the office and parted shortly after, since Hermione had to meet Anthony in a couple of minutes and Draco wanted to return to their rooms to digest this new piece of information and to try to figure out who this mysterious spy might be.

--

Greyback glared at the young wizard before him suspiciously.

"Are you sure you can do this alone?" he demanded, his eyes almost glowing in the barely lit room.

"Of course I can." the wizard answered, self-confidence radiating off him. Greyback considered him for a minute, then slowly nodded.

"Well, then…" he snorted. "Do not disappoint me, Mr Zabini.. You know the consequences." he added threateningly.

Blaise Zabini just stared back at him, determination set on his face.

"I won't disappoint you." he stated, a dark smile on his face. "Malfoy will certainly not get away with this…"

--

**A/N:** Whew! That's another chapter done.. Let me know what you think, any feedback is appreciated!! So please please please REVIEW!! ;)


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

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Chapter 7

The next couple of days went by quickly for Hermione, they had classes which she really enjoyed and finally she could spend time with her friends again. Draco remained pretty much the same, seizing every single opportunity to get close to her, especially in front of other students. Needless to say, his favourite prey included Harry and Ron, which they didn't really appreciate, but eventually they had to learn to deal with it. They knew the reason behind the whole scheme and that made them more accepting. Hermione of course had to go with everything Draco initiated, specially knowing that there was a spy possibly watching their every move, so she knew they couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

The news of their upcoming wedding spread quite quickly, even without a formal announcement. Hermione and Draco only told their friends, knowing that they would immediately pass the information on anyway, creating an endless chain. They were right, after about 3 days every single person in the school knew, which worked out well for them because they wanted to make sure that it reached the spy. Harry and Ron took the news relatively well, they definitely trusted Dumbledore's judgement, and since it was his idea they let Hermione off the hook easily. Ginny was in complete ecstasy, Hermione must have played her part well, because her younger friend believed her story about being in love with Draco without a problem, and she was very happy and excited about the wedding.

On the second weekend since school started Hermione had to get up a bit earlier than she normally would have, because she had a Heads meeting with Anthony in the library and she wanted to have some breakfast before going. She still didn't trust Draco enough to let him back into the bedroom, so she had to be quiet when she entered the living room because he was still asleep on the couch. She carefully went to the kitchen, but paused on the way to glance at Draco. She couldn't help smiling; he looked like a little boy with his ruffled hair, his mouth slightly open, and his hand hanging off of the couch. He suddenly snorted, which made Hermione jump a little. She felt like she'd been caught staring and she blushed, quickly making her way to the kitchen, silently cursing herself.

Hermione was already sitting at the small kitchen table, eating a piece of toast while reading the Prophet, when she heard grumbling from the living room.

"Oh, fuck!!" she heard Draco yell, which was promptly followed by "Damn, I'm late from Quidditch practise!"

Hermione smiled as she heard him run to the bathroom, presumably to take a quick shower. She shook her head slightly, then ate the last piece of toast and washed the dishes with a quick movement of her wand. She hurried out to the corridors and made her way to the library, where Anthony was already waiting for her.

--

After Quidditch practise, Draco felt exhausted and went to take a shower directly to soothe his aching muscles. Then he lay down on the couch with a book in his hand, which he'd wanted to read for a long time. After the first couple of pages though, he realised that he hadn't seen Hermione all day and wondered where she was. Then he suddenly remembered something she said the night before, about meeting Rosencrantz in the library for a Head duty meeting.

'_But I didn't see her before I left to practise and that was hours ago…'_ he thought uncomfortably. _'What on earth are they doing for so long?!'_

Then he decided that he shouldn't even start thinking about that if he didn't want to explode… Which of course he didn't. After a minute of contemplating his curiosity finally won, and he quickly made his way to the library, the book left on the living room table completely forgotten. He strictly forced himself not to think about them on the way though…

When he got there, he was careful to make sure that they won't see him as he went looking for them. He finally found them towards the far end of the library. As he was getting closer, he heard Guildenstern speak to Hermione in a far-too-low voice in his opinion, which was followed by Hermione's laugh that was quite close to giggling. As he reached the bookshelf that was closest to their table, he slightly leaned forward to peek at them. He saw Goldencrantz lean close to Hermione's ear, keeping a hand on her arm as he spoke.

That's when it happened. For a second Draco only saw white fumes, his mind felt like it was boiling. His hands were clenched into fists by his sides and his expression was on the borderline of insane. Then suddenly everything cleared, he took a deep breath and he casually made his way to their table. As Hermione noticed him she quickly moved further away from Rosenstein, who just stared up at him expectantly.

"Hi there." Draco said as he reached them, his face unreadable. "May I speak to you for a minute, please?" he looked at Hermione.

Hermione swallowed, gave an apologetic nod to Anthony and hesitantly followed Draco, fearing what would come next.

--

Draco lead Hermione out of the library to a secluded corridor, then quickly spun around to face her. Hermione wasn't expecting this, so she bumped into him before taking a couple of steps back, a bewildered expression on her face.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing??" Draco asked her with a slightly raised voice, his eyes glowing with anger. "You think I'm doing all this for you, risking my own life, so you can go around flirting with stupid gits like that Rosenstein chap?! Well you're WRONG!! If I see you one more time with him like that, or with anyone else for that matter, I'm _out_. Do you hear me?!" by the end he was nearly shouting, his face just inches from Hermione's as he glared at her, panting.

Hermione looked quite shocked, taking several more steps back, but she was restricted by the wall. By the end of Draco's speech, her face slowly turned just as mad as Draco's, though.

"What are you talking about?!" she demanded, taking a step back closer to him, glaring back at him just as murderously. "I never flirted with him, we were just talking, we're friends! What's wrong with you?!"

"Oh I bet you don't see me talking to my friends like that!" he shot back at her, then he imitated her giggling in order to demonstrate what he meant. This just made Hermione even more pissed.

"Oh my God, you are really unbelievable!" she spat. "Did you even hear what we were talking about?! He was just telling me a joke! If you don't like the way I laugh, that is your own personal problem, leave _me_ out of it!" she poked his chest with her finger.

In the heat of their fight, they never noticed the shadow at the corner of the corridor, which quickly slid into an empty classroom, leaving the door slightly open.

"Do you even hear what you're saying?" Draco responded with the speed of a Firebolt. "You are completely unreasonable! Just think about it! No matter what you were talking about, the way you two acted totally contradicts _our_ relationship! Do you really want to make me look like an idiot?!"

"Do I really have to answer that?" Hermione asked sarcastically. "Look, it's really none of your business who I am friends with, so I would appreciate it if you didn't stick your nose into everything all the time! I mean who are you to follow my every move like this?!" she was really yelling now, her face full of rage as she glared at him.

"Who am I?!" Draco pushed her against the wall, his icy glare piercing through her. "Your very-soon-to-be husband!! That's exactly who I am! That would give me the right now, wouldn't it?!" he spat.

"You would think, wouldn't you!" she stared right back at him. "Well you're wrong! This conversation is over! And don't you dare following me!" she added as she moved right past him, walking down the corridor hurriedly with her head held high. "Oh, and his name is GOLDSTEIN!" she yelled before she turned the corner.

Draco stared after her with wide eyes, shock plastered on his face. He couldn't believe his ears. He just stood there for a couple of minutes, still trying to comprehend what just happened between them, trying to make sense of it. Then he seemed to have realised where he was, and he quickly left the corridor, making his way towards their rooms, a cold expression on his face.

After a couple of minutes, someone exited the empty classroom and cautiously looked around before leaving the now deserted corridor.

--

"So do you have anything for me, Zabini?" a low voice growled from the dark.

"Yes, Greyback." a calm, almost bored tone answered. "As you already know, they are going to get married; at least none of them broke it off yet." At this, an annoyed groan came from the shadows. "But today I overheard them having a big fight, apparently about another guy." Zabini continued.

"Hmmm… Well, I don't believe that this _relationship_ is real…" Greyback's animalistic voice came; it even made Zabini shiver a bit. "What do _you_ think? You've been watching them for quite some time now.."

"I have my doubts as well, but based on what I've heard so far, I can't be certain." Zabini declared. "But if I continue with my task, I'm sure I'll find some proof."

"Hah! But that might not be enough." Greyback said impatiently. "I need a back-up plan… But how can I make sure that it's just a scheme?..." he seemed to be talking to himself now.

"If I may suggest something, I have an idea that you could use in case it takes me too long to find anything." Zabini said quietly.

"Hmmm, fine! Tell me your plan!"

--

Hermione stormed into the Gryffindor common room angrily, slamming the portrait behind her. She looked around, still panting, looking for her friends. As she saw Harry and Ron in a far corner, she made her way to them, making them look at her with growing concern. They quickly looked at each other before turning back to her.

"Hermione, is everything okay?" Harry asked as she slumped into one of the comfortable armchairs next to the boys. She shook her head angrily.

"No, Harry, everything's NOT okay!" she said desperately. "We just had a huge fight with Draco, apparently he thinks that he can control every step I take." she furrowed her brows.

"Why, what happened?" Ron asked, fearing the worst. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No, of course not." Hermione said impatiently. "I was just talking to Anthony and he just dragged me away and shouted at me for flirting with him!" she said, an incredulous expression on her face.

"Well, were you?" Harry asked cautiously.

"NO!" Hermione shouted. "Of course I wasn't! Harry, how could you even say that?" she lowered her voice a bit, glaring at her friend.

"Sorry…" Harry said, looking at his feet. "Just making sure…"

"I cannot believe him!" Hermione said, mostly to herself. "What a conceited little…"

"Hermione!" Harry said, raising his voice, looking around worriedly. "This is your fiancé we're talking about!" he warned her. Hermione just rolled her eyes. "Look, just please calm down!" Harry continued. "Just remember why you're doing all this, okay? I mean there's a _good_ reason." he gave her a meaningful look.

"Which is that you LOVE him!" Ron added hastily, his eyes wide, glancing around him looking paranoid.

Hermione couldn't suppress a smile; seeing her friends worrying about her like this made her feel all warm inside. She knew she was very lucky to have friends like them. She was about to tell them not to worry, when Ginny came running down from the girls' dormitories. She stopped in front of them excitedly, looking expectantly at Harry, then at Hermione.

"Harry, have you told her yet?" she asked, grinning. Harry quickly glanced at Hermione, then looked up at Ginny.

"No, not yet, I thought you would want to be here…" he said, slightly blushing. Ginny seemed to get even more eager as she pulled Harry up to stand next to her. Hermione looked at them, starting to suspect what was going on, a big smile spreading on her face.

"Hermione, Harry and I decided to date." Ginny said, her eyes twinkling with joy. Ron just smiled at them, shaking his head. Harry still blushed a bit, but he hugged Ginny to him proudly, looking at Hermione expectantly. Hermione jumped up as she heard this, hugging them tightly and shouting "Congratulations!!". She was so happy for them, she made them sit down and tell her every detail about how they got together. They spent a lovely evening together, just sitting and talking until it got dark outside.

--

After dinner Hermione said good night to her friends and she made her way back to her room. When she stepped inside the living room, she saw Draco reading on the couch. She deliberately looked somewhere else when she saw him glancing up, and she quickly turned towards the bedroom. Draco seemed pretty pissed about this.

"Good evening to you too." he said, clearly annoyed. "Don't you think we should talk about what happened?" he added, raising his eyebrows.

Hermione ignored him, and slammed the door after her.

"Well, that's not good…" Draco said to himself. "I wonder who she thinks _she_ is." he murmured.

"_Your fiancé, mate…" _a small voice in his head answered.

"Oh, just shut up…" he said tiredly to the voice as he continued to read.

--

**A/N:** Yaaay, one more chapter done! :) Thank you soooo much for all the wonderful reviews, they really keep me going! Chapter 6 got about twice as many reviews as the other ones, so I was really happy! Hope you liked this chapter too. And again, PLEASE REVIEW!! Pretty please?


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

--

--

Chapter 8

As the days passed after their argument, Draco found himself hoping that things would just go back to normal between him and Hermione. However, she seemed to have taken the issue very seriously and hasn't said a word to him since then, other than what was necessary to play their parts. Draco kept trying to talk to her in the beginning, but then simply gave up and told himself he didn't care. He was convinced that he was right about Goldencrantz, so he never actually apologised to her, which might have been the cause for her grudge towards him.

Two weeks passed since their big fight and the time of the first Hogsmeade trip came, which just made Draco even more pissed. He knew they would have to go together to show that everything was fine and they were very happy, when in fact he was sure that Hermione will ignore him all day and find other company as soon as possible.

When he met her in the living room, they were both dressed up well because of the cold autumn wind. Hermione was wearing a warm maroon coloured jumper with a dark brown scarf, with her hair cascading down her shoulders. Draco only glanced at her briefly, he didn't want to anger himself further, but he couldn't help thinking that she looked kind of cute. His own clothing was all black and grey, which was matching his mood. Most of his clothes were dark anyway…

As they set off, they kept a safe distance between each other, but as they got close to the Entrance Hall and other students started showing up around them, they had to act like the happy couple, so Draco quickly intertwined his fingers with hers and pulled her a little closer. They never looked at each other, so they looked kind of paradox holding hands, walking quietly. When they got outside, Hermione realised how they must look, so she poked Draco slightly with her elbow, who looked at her, an eyebrow raised but his eyes still remained cold. Hermione curtly nodded to signal him that they had to keep the façade on and then smiled brightly at him. For a moment it didn't register with Draco that she was only doing it for the act and gave her a kind of relieved, warm smile. Hermione kept playing her part, thinking that Draco's only playing too, and clung to his arm seemingly happy as they walked towards the village amongst the other students. At this act however, Draco realised what was going on and held onto her bitterly, thinking that they should really get over themselves and just try to be friends instead of all the fights and bickering.

Hermione was thinking along similar lines as she was walking peacefully with Draco, but she still couldn't manage to forgive him. For a minute this made her think. Really, why did she find it so hard to forgive him? She would have surely forgiven Harry or Ron by now, wouldn't she? It would be a lot easier for both her and Draco if they were friends (or at least tried to be friends) through all this. She also felt a twitch of remorse for not appreciating Draco's help a bit more, since he was really sacrificing a lot for her. She looked up at him, deep in thought and for a second she got lost in the calming image he made. The autumn sun made his fair hair glow beautifully and it highlighted his aristocratic features, also adding a magical shine to his stormy grey eyes. He seemed deep in thought as well, so he didn't notice Hermione carefully studying his face. He looked so troubled that it made Hermione feel sad for him and also guilty, because she suspected that some (or most…) of his troubles must have been caused by her. She made her decision then.

"Ummm, Draco?" she started hesitantly, not being able to look him in the eye as his piercing gaze fell on her. "I want to apologise for making a big deal out of what happened, I admit that I overreacted. I'm sorry." she kept looking down, feeling awkward. "Can we try to be friends?" the last part came out as nearly a whisper, she didn't want anyone to hear them.

Draco was surprised to hear her own up to everything like that, but he felt extremely relieved. He gave her a quick smile as she finally looked up at him.

"Of course." he said, holding his head high, trying to seem very noble for forgiving her. "Good to know you finally grew up…" he added with a smirk, a playful glint in his eyes.

"Oh come on!" Hermione punched him lightly. "I just admitted I was wrong, don't try to make it harder for me!" she laughed.

"Well, took you long enough!" he said, rubbing his arm in mock hurt.

The rest of the trip to the village seemed to have gone by in mere seconds, since they were deeply in conversation and didn't feel the time go by. When they got there, they visited some of the shops together and walked around a bit, surrounded by other happily talking young witches and wizards. As they were eating some candy they bought earlier, Draco looked at Hermione admiringly. Her cheeks were slightly flushed from the chilly weather, her eyes twinkling happily as she took a bite from the chocolate frog she was holding. Draco smiled at her, finishing the last piece of his own frog. Then he noticed a small piece of chocolate on Hermione's face and leaned closer to wipe it off. Then an idea crossed his head, and he smirked wickedly as his face was getting closer and closer to hers. Hermione's eyes widened as he slowly kissed the last piece of chocolate off her face and she swallowed hard when he moved away, winking at her.

"You had some chocolate on your face." Draco explained casually and grinned to himself as he saw the slight disappointment on Hermione's face, noting that his idea worked.

He suddenly grabbed her free hand and pulled her close to him, so her body was pressed against his. He let go of her wrist and moved his hand to the back of her head, while holding her to him by her waist with his other hand. Before Hermione could realise what was happening, his lips were on hers in a possessive and slightly forceful kiss. Draco couldn't help it, she just looked too sweet and innocent eating the chocolate, and he knew he had to kiss her. As Hermione melted into the kiss, she moved her free hand onto his shoulder, pulling him closer. At Hermione's reaction Draco slowed down a bit, making the kiss more gentle but still passionate. For a couple of minutes they both felt like they were in heaven, but then they had to break the kiss because of the lack of oxygen.

"Well, what was that for?" Hermione asked as they parted, her gaze still a bit foggy.

"Oh, I just thought we could use the good publicity." Draco grinned, hinting at the giggling girls here and there who were still looking at them. He slowly let go of her.

"Oh, alright then." Hermione said, still not completely comprehending what was happening around her. She looked around confused for a second, then her gaze fell on the Three Broomsticks. "Okay, well if it's okay with you, I'll go and catch up with Ron and Harry a bit…" she glanced at him nervously, before turning quickly and hurrying towards her destination.

Draco watched her retreating back, amused and also very pleased with himself. As Hermione entered the inn, he turned slowly, still smiling to himself, and decided to go back to the book store and look around the Quidditch section.

--

As Hermione entered the Three Broomsticks, she looked around for her friends. Since she didn't see them, she thought she'll wait for a while and if they don't show up she'll just go and find Draco. Before ordering she went quickly to the ladies', washed her face and looked at her reflection in the mirror with a sigh. She couldn't quite figure out how Draco could make her feel this way. She didn't notice the tall stranger in a pitch black cloak enter after her, so she wanted to scream in surprise as she felt a wand pressed into her back and a hand cover her mouth. She couldn't see the person's face because the hood of the cloak was pulled down to cover his face.

"Quiet, Mudblood!" he spat. "Now slowly drop your wand on the floor. _Slowly_, or I swear I'll hex you!" he threatened.

As she hesitantly complied, she was desperately trying to think of a way out of her spiteful situation, but at the moment she was helpless. She couldn't figure out who the attacker was, but his voice seemed awfully familiar.

"Good girl." he drawled into her ear, right before disapparating them away.

--

As Draco was about to step into the bookstore, suddenly he got evil forebodings. He couldn't explain what he felt, but he had the urge to run back after Hermione and check if she was okay. He usually relied on his instincts and they usually turned out to be right, so without second thoughts he spun around and hurried back to the Three Broomsticks.

When he got there he quickly scanned the inn for Hermione. He didn't see her and he couldn't find Harry or Ron either. He asked Madam Rosmerta if she saw any of them and she told him that Hermione came in a couple of minutes ago and thought she saw her head to the loo. Draco thanked her and made his way to the toilets, where he asked a 6th year Ravenclaw who was about to go in to check for Hermione. When she came out a minute later, she told him that Hermione was not there.

That was when Draco started to panic. He tried to control his breathing, and most importantly his thoughts. His thoughts seemed to be racing though. Where is she? What could have happened to her? Why aren't Potter and Weasley here? Then he realised that it would be probably easier for him if they helped. So he hurried outside and ran from shop to shop until he found them near the Quidditch store.

As he quickly explained the situation, he realised that the former state he was in was nothing compared to their reaction, especially Weasley's. They had to spend at least three minutes calming him, when Draco finally reminded them that this was not helping Hermione, which seemed to have worked, because Harry quickly suggested that they go and speak to Dumbledore.

--

Hermione found herself in a small and very dark cell, sitting on a chair, her hands tied behind her and she couldn't move her legs either, which could only mean that they were tied too. As she looked around, her eyes wide with fear, she tried to remember what happened to her, but the last thing she could recall was getting apparated away. She couldn't think about her situation for too long though, because soon she heard footsteps getting closer to her cell. She saw a shadow blocking the light coming from the little window on the door for a second, then she heard a voice that made her blood freeze in her veins.

"Well? Is she awake yet?" the voice said impatiently. "You hit her with quite a strong spell, she has been out for about half an hour now…" the voice sounded clearly annoyed.

"Yes, I know, I had to make sure she didn't cause any trouble while bringing her here and tying her up." another voice drawled, which Hermione recognised as her attacker. "And yes, she is awake now." he added.

"Good. The time has come then." Hermione was shivering now; she couldn't help thinking that she knew that voice. "Bring the potion!" Yes, that was definitely Fenrir Greyback's bloodcurdling voice.

As the door slowly opened, Hermione's eyes opened wide and her breathing quickened as she saw Fenrir Greyback enter the small cell, followed by the hooded stranger who was holding a small vial. Hermione wanted to scream when she saw the evil and sadistic grin on Greyback's face, but she realised that no matter how hard she tried she couldn't make a single sound.

"Oh, no you can't speak yet, my dear." Greyback drawled as he slowly approached her with a lustful expression. "But you will, don't worry! You will answer _all_ my questions, especially about your little engagement…" he grinned evilly. Hermione tried to squirm away from him with no success, as he moved his hand up to brush a lock of hair out of her face. "Oh and you will answer after drinking _this_." he held up the little vial. "It's Veritaserum, I'm sure you already recognised it and are familiar with its effects…" he added, laughing maniacally. As the hooded figure stepped closer, Hermione's eyes widened in fear. "And if your answers are satisfactory, I'll keep you here with me. I'm sure we'll have a _great_ time!" he added as he grazed her cheek with the back of his hand, while Hermione tried to move away with a disgusted look on her face.

Before Greyback could force her mouth open though, they heard hurried footsteps coming closer to the cell. Greyback grunted in frustration and turned to the other hooded man impatiently.

"What is it NOW?!" he spat. "Can't you see I'm busy at the moment?!"

"The Dark Lord wishes to see you immediately." the man said calmly. "It is extremely important, it _cannot_ wait." he added pointedly.

"Fine!" Greyback shouted angrily. "Stay here and wait for me! I'll be back shortly!" he turned to Hermione's attacker, and with a last angry glare at Hermione he left the cell with the other man.

--

Hermione was looking around wearily after Greyback left. Everything was silent, her only companion stood quietly in a corner, and he seemed deeply in thought even though she didn't see his face. Suddenly she heard hurried footsteps and she braced herself for Greyback's return. The hooded man straightened up and walked to the door lazily, slightly opening it. Before he could glance outside though, he was thrown back as the door was blasted open, and Hermione was looking up at none other than his two best friends accompanied by her fiancé. Before they could do anything, the man disapparated. Harry and Ron didn't seem to care; they ran up to Hermione and started shooting questions at her, while Draco stormed in after them, looking around for the man angrily. When he realised that the man was gone, he rushed back to Hermione and pushing Harry and Ron away he checked if she was okay. He smiled at her relieved when he realised that she was fine and quickly untied her with a flick of his wand.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked her, still a hint of worry in his eyes. All Hermione could do was smile weakly at him and nod.

"I think she's been silenced by a spell." Harry said, trying to get closer to his friend, but Draco didn't let them take his spot in front of her. Hermione nodded in confirmation to Harry's assumption.

That was the moment when Snape and McGonagall hurried into the cell, slightly panting.

"Mr Potter, Mr Weasley, Mr Malfoy, I believe I told you quite clearly to wait for us before coming in here!" McGonagall said scolding, looking quite dishevelled. By this time Snape inspected Hermione and quickly lifted the silencing spell.

"Thank you so much for coming for me!" Hermione said gratefully. "But we have to go now, Greyback will be back any minute!" she added quickly. The three boys seemed like they were about to ask another set of questions, but Snape cut them off before they could start.

"Everyone apparate in front of the Three Broomsticks NOW!" he commanded. "Everyone. Now. Exactly. There." he emphasised, as if talking to 3-year-olds. "Am I clear?" everyone nodded.

Without another word, Draco stepped closer to Hermione, pulled her up gently and held her in his arms. Hermione felt very safe and protected as she held onto him. Then Draco disapparated them away, followed by everyone else.

--

After they got back safely, they all went to see Dumbledore who had urgent business and couldn't go with them. When he arrived, Hermione told them exactly what happened and they concluded that the spy must have taken Hermione to Greyback. They also told Hermione that they found her with the help of Snape, who suspected the werewolf's hideout to be there. When all the boys' questions were answered as well and everyone seemed to relax a bit, Dumbledore dismissed them with a warning that they must be very careful in the future. When they left the headmaster's office, Harry and Ron said good night to Hermione after making sure that she was really okay, and with a nod to Draco they headed back to the Gryffindor tower. During the "questioning", Draco stood silently behind Hermione's chair, as some sort of a body guard and made no comment about anything.

After Harry and Ron left, Hermione turned tiredly to Draco, with a sweet smile on her face.

"Thank you so much for everything, Draco." she said sincerely. "After the way I acted, I wouldn't have been surprised if you hated me, but you actually saved me. And don't even try to deny it, I heard what happened, and if you didn't go looking for me, you would never have gotten there on time!" she added when he opened his mouth to protest. "Thank you!" Hermione said again, with a grateful smile.

Draco felt extremely relieved that she was fine, and her thankfulness made him really happy. He smiled back at her, and as she moved closer to hug him, first he was astonished but then returned the hug contentedly.

"I'm so happy you're my friend, Draco." she said still hugging him, feeling protected.

"I'm happy you're my friend too." Draco said sheepishly while enjoying her warm body against his. He couldn't help smelling her hair, which was an intoxicating coconut and honey fragrance. Then he realised what he was doing, so he quickly pulled away, smiling coyly at her. "Let's go and get some rest."

--

Draco was lying down next to Hermione in their double bed, unable to fall asleep. After they got back to their rooms, Hermione offered for Draco to come back to sleep in the bedroom, which Draco gladly accepted, he couldn't get a decent good night sleep on the couch. Now she was soundly asleep next to him and he just couldn't stop thinking about the day's events.

The idea that he might feel something for Hermione started to get into his head. The way it made him all warm inside when she apologised in the morning was alarming. And then how he panicked when she disappeared, and the relief he felt when he knew she was alright… These feelings confused him to no end. Then he just dismissed the whole idea, thinking that he only liked her as a friend.

'_And of course I enjoy a good snog with her as well, but that doesn't mean I have other feelings…'_ he mused to himself.

'_Keep telling yourself that, if it makes you feel better, mate!'_ the small annoying voice in his head taunted.

He simply ignored the voice and slowly fell into a highly disturbed sleep, with dreams of Hermione getting kidnapped and hurt, and him trying to save her but just before he could reach her she always disappeared…

--

**A/N:** Wow, long chapter, huh? :D I hope you liked it! ;) I have some bad news though, I won't be able to update for quite a while now, probably about a month, because I'm going home (to Hungary, yaaay:)) and then my best friend is coming here to visit, so I'll be pretty swamped… I hope you won't forget about this story though, because I'll definitely continue it as soon as possible. Well, this long chapter is my good-bye present, and I hope you'll review in return! ;)

So again, PLEASE REVIEW!! It makes me really-really happy! Thanks:) xxx


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

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Chapter 9

Hermione was sitting in the very comfortable armchair near the fireplace in the living room she shared with Draco, enjoying the calm Friday afternoon. She was reading a book, which she borrowed from the library that morning, strictly for entertainment and relaxation, so she won't spend another Friday afternoon studying. However, she couldn't focus on the book properly, because the occupant of the couch right next to her armchair was coughing every second minute, which made her glance up and furrow her brows. He didn't look at her though, so after he stopped she always returned to her book. At least ten minutes passed like this when she had finally had enough.

"Draco, if your throat hurts, why don't you go and make some hot tea with honey or something?" she snapped at him. "Or if it's that bad, go and see Madam Pomfrey, I'm sure she has some potion for it." she added pointedly.

"It's extremely nice of you, my dear fiancé, to worry about me so, but I am completely fine thank you very much." Draco replied sharply, glancing up from his own book. He tried very hard to suppress another coughing fit, but in the end he couldn't and it just became worse.

"That would have been a lot more convincing if you didn't almost choke on your speech from coughing…" Hermione rolled her eyes. "Boys!" she dramatically exclaimed, while putting her book down and making her way to the kitchen. She returned a couple of minutes later with a steaming mug in her hand. "They always try to seem so tough that they just end up making the situation even worse!" she continued as she handed Draco the warm liquid. Draco looked up at her, half amused, half indignant.

"I'll have you know that I am not like all _boys_, as you so felicitously put it." he retorted. "So in the future kindly restrain yourself from generalising." he added with an overly hurt expression. Hermione just rolled her eyes, but the corner of her mouth was twitching upwards.

"Now if you don't want this to get worse, please drink that tea and then lie down properly so you can rest better!" Hermione scolded, which was followed by Draco's bemused expression. Before he could react, Hermione rushed into the bedroom and came back with a big fluffy blanket. Not waiting for Draco to comprehend what was happening, she already took the half finished tea from him which she put on the table next to the couch. Then she impatiently pushed Draco back into a more horizontal position and covered him with the thick blanket.

Draco couldn't hide his shock as he gaped at her with his mouth hanging open. He was so astonished that he even forgot to try to stop her. Before he could so much as blink there was a comfortable pillow stuck under his head and the tea was back in his hand. Hermione was now standing in front of him with her hands crossed across her chest, looking down at him expectantly.

"What are you waiting for, drink the damn tea!" she said impatiently. Draco complied and when he was finished she quickly took the mug from him and went to the kitchen, probably to refill it. When she was back and put the mug down so he could reach it, she noticed him trying to stifle a laugh.

"Oh, what is it now?!" she snapped at him, clearly annoyed.

"Oh nothing, my dearest fiancé, I have women running around me and putting me to rest every day of my life, I find nothing unusual about it. Do you?" he enquired with an eyebrow raised, a grin still on his face.

"No, actually I don't. I do this kind of thing to Harry and Ron all the time." she said as if that were the most natural thing she's ever heard. "They are just like you, never admitting that they are sick and need rest." she added with an amused expression on her face as she saw him get worked up about being compared to Harry and Ron again.

"I am not sick!" he started, but was cut off quickly.

"Oh, come off it already, you've been sneezing and coughing since the Hogsmeade trip last weekend. You must have caught a cold there." Hermione retorted.

"Well, if I didn't have to spend most of that trip running around in the cold wind to find you and then to rescue you, I might have escaped said cold!" he said, seemingly mad at her, but the smile he tried to suppress was obvious.

"I knew you would throw that in my face!" Hermione whirled around instantly, but when she saw his face she stopped in her track. "Oh, you will pay for that, you little…" but instead of finishing she jumped on him, beating him with his own pillow.

"Heeeelp! Heeeelp!" Draco pretended to struggle against her. "There's a vicious witch on top of me!" he cried, trying to stop laughing. "I give up, please don't kill me!" at this, Hermione finally retreated, throwing his pillow back to him.

"I'll go check on Harry and Ron now, and Ginny said something about wanting to talk to me, so while I'm away, make sure to rest! And finish the tea!" she warned him playfully with her index finger.

"Yes sir!" Draco mocked her in a deep, soldier-like voice. "I mean madam!" he corrected quickly after seeing the sinister look she gave him.

After she left with a last warning glance his way, he stared dumbfounded at the mug in his hand. _'What on EARTH is happening to me?!' _he thought desperately. _'I'm Draco Malfoy for Merlin's sake! I'm not supposed to be playing around like this with Hermione Granger! Hell, I'm not supposed to be playing around like that with ANYONE! I must be really losing it…'_ he shook his head in disbelief. He was thinking over what could have caused him to behave so unlike him, and he could only come up with one solution. _Her._ He must get a grip or he'll lose his personality. The traits that made him who he was. He was seriously scared now. _'Merlin, this woman is making me go crazy… And NOT in the good way. I must be more careful around her.'_ he concluded bitterly.

--

Hermione was having a lot of fun in her old home, the girls' dormitories in the Gryffindor tower. Ginny was asking her about her plans for the wedding, and when Hermione shocked her with the fact that she hasn't even started planning yet, Ginny nearly fainted. Then she started fussing about every little detail about the wedding, like what type of flowers they should use to decorate, what colour the chairs should be on which the guests will sit, what type of a wedding dress Hermione would like, and so on. Hermione found it actually really fun to work out the details, and she was also happy to spend some time with her dear friend.

"Hermione, you really have a lot to think about!" Ginny chided with a very serious expression on her face, which nearly made Hermione laugh, but realising that her friend _was_ serious, she quickly wiped the smile off of her face. "I mean the wedding is in three weeks, that's almost nothing! It will be here in no time, trust me!" she continued, looking through a wedding dress catalogue.

Hermione was about to open her mouth to reassure her excited friend that they had nothing to worry about when suddenly Lavender entered the room, looking at them bemusedly.

"Hermione, Harry and Ron are waiting for you in the common room. Just got back from Quidditch practise and said that you were supposed to meet them there." she declared with a small smile. Hermione nodded with a smile and thanked her.

After about five minutes she joined the other two thirds of the Golden Trio and they sat down comfortably to catch up a bit. Hermione enjoyed spending time with her fiends again, and for a couple of hours it felt to her like everything was normal again. No Greyback trying to get her. No Draco tormenting her every day. Then she sighed, realising that Draco has been alright for the past week, so she really had no reason to complain about him. When she finally said good night to her friends and left the Gryffindor common room, she remembered to stop by the kitchen to get some warm soup for Draco.

As she stepped into their living room, Hermione realised that Draco was asleep on the couch. She smiled to herself and put the soup down next to his mug so if he woke up he could drink it. She also charmed it so it wouldn't get cold. She quietly retired to the bedroom, reading a bit before going to bed. She decided to leave Draco alone on the couch, if he woke up he could come to the bedroom himself, she thought. Her thoughts drifted to the playful bickering they shared earlier and smiled to herself, thinking that now her relationship with Draco was much like her connection with Ron and Harry. This was a really calming thought, because it gave her the feeling that she could always count on Draco of she needed his help. Thinking of this, she slowly drifted to sleep.

--

Draco was staring blankly at the parchment in his hands. It was only two days after Hermione decided that he needed rest and after her constant care for the past days, he was good as new again. But now, even as his health was back, he felt extremely sick. In fact he had no idea how he was supposed to feel at that moment.

After staring at the note for a couple of more minutes, he angrily crumpled it with one hand and threw it against the wall before getting up and storming out of the living room he shared with Hermione. He was extremely furious and also sad, but above all confused. He didn't even know where he was going, he couldn't see from the fog that was clouding his mind. He was barely aware of the younger students who he almost knocked over on his way, when he finally rounded the corner and realised where he was. He stormed into the library and without looking at anyone, he strode to the restricted section with his eyes as dark as the clouds outside, which promised a huge storm.

--

Hermione was chatting comfortably with Ginny in the Gryffindor common room, as a second year student burst in through the portrait hole, looking around frantically and obviously running out of breath. To Hermione's great surprise, when he spotted her, he ran over and turned to her with a horrified expression.

"Hermione Granger?" he asked quickly. Hermione nodded worriedly. "You have to come to the library immediately! Madam Pince told me to get you, because your fiancé is destroying the restricted section!" he panted with eyes almost as wide as Hermione's. With a terrified glance at Ginny, who looked just as dumbfounded as her, Hermione raced after the young wizard and followed him to the library, not that she needed directions.

McGonagall was already there, looking relieved as she saw Hermione approaching.

"Thank Merlin, you're here Miss Granger!" she hurried towards her. "We cannot stop him, he is vicious…"

"Do you know what happened to him, professor?" Hermione asked hurriedly.

McGonagall handed her a crumpled piece of parchment. "I found this in your living room when I went to look for you there." she said and she looked back to the library as a loud banging distracted her. "Please, hurry Miss Granger, maybe you can do something!" she added quickly before running off to get the other students out of the library.

Hermione straightened the parchment as quickly as she could and read the first couple of lines before dropping the parchment and staring at her hands in disbelief.

"Lucius was killed in a battle?!" she exclaimed to herself. "But how?..." but she didn't have time to mull over it for much longer as another banging sound brought her back to reality.

She ran into the library, knocking everyone out of her way as she approached the frantic Draco. Thankfully, by that time McGonagall and Madam Pince managed to get all students away from the restricted section. As Hermione rounded the corner, she was taken aback by the destruction he'd done. Most of the books were thrown from the shelves and were lying in piles on the floor with pages ripped out and some completely blasted apart. Draco was still moving down the aisle, continuing the demolition, not even noticing Hermione.

"Draco!" Hermione's desperate cry didn't even seem to have reached him, although the thunder outside might have muffled it a bit. "Draco! What are you doing?! Stop!" she ran after him, but her voice didn't affect him at all. When she reached him, she clung to his sleeve and tried to pull him back from the books. Finally he acknowledged her presence. He stopped moving and just stared down at her for a long moment. Then without a word, he turned back to the shelves and continued what he was doing as if nothing happened.

"Draco, stop it!" Hermione cried desperately. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Why?!" Draco bellowed, surprising Hermione by answering at all. "You ask me _why_?! I'll tell you why!" he turned to her for a second, his eyes shooting daggers at her, making her back away slightly. "The content of these books is what destroyed my family! That's why! My father always told me to follow him and do exactly as he says, just as he did with his father and then the Dark Lord! And look where that got him! He's DEAD!" he cried, stepping towards Hermione with his hands balled into fists at his sides. She tried to back away from him, frightened, but her back hit the shelves. "Without the content of these damned books and all the sodding black magic, my family would be still whole and not shattered to pieces!" he got back to throwing books off the shelves, which landed noisily on the floor.

"Oh, Draco, I'm so sorry!" Hermione said quietly, taking a step towards him.

"Sorry?!" he whirled around suddenly, causing Hermione to step back again. "Why on earth would _you_ be sorry?! It's not your family, is it?" Hermione was shocked to see his eyes glisten with tears. There was lightening outside and as she quickly took one more step back, she almost fell and had to hold onto the shelf. Draco turned back to the books he was about to throw down, but it seemed like his strength had left him. He leaned against the shelves with his head rested on his arm.

Hermione hesitated for a moment, then slowly approached him and laid a hand on his back calmingly. At her gentle touch, Draco slowly turned his head in her direction and she saw tears running down his face. His expression softened a bit, now it had gone from murderous to extremely bitter. Hermione stared up at him for a second, taking in his dishevelled form.

"Draco…" she whispered softly, and moved in closer to him, carefully hugging him. Draco was standing still for a minute, astonished by her actions, but her slender form felt so reassuring and calming against him that he couldn't help hugging her back and holding her close. He then realised that even if Hermione considered him just a friend, he was very lucky to have her by his side.

--

Greyback was pacing back and forth in a dark cell, glancing angrily at his only companion, Blaise Zabini.

"So you're saying that it seems real?" he groaned threateningly at the young wizard.

"Yes, it certainly does." Zabini reassured him. "The way she comforted him after Lucius' death…"

"Enough, I don't want to hear any more!!" Greyback grunted. "I simply don't believe any of it!" he hit the wall with his fist and the loud noise startled Zabini.

"I have another idea…" Zabini suggested carefully. Greyback just glared at him. "I could try to seduce her… If it's real there is no way she would even look at me. But if it isn't…"

"Alright, alright!" Greyback agreed. "But you better bring me some good news next time!" he threatened, his eyes piercing as ever. Zabini bowed quickly and disapparated.

--

The next couple of days, Draco felt more and more protective of Hermione. The way she comforted him made him feel even closer to her, which of course confused him even more but he just couldn't help it. He tried to make sure that he knew where she was most of the time and even checked on her sometimes when she took too long in the library and such.

On one occasion when he walked to the library he saw Blaise move towards Hermione. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he saw Blaise touching her arm in a rather more-than-friendly way, which was all the proof he needed. His protective radar was warning him already. Luckily Hermione seemed to politely get rid of him, so when Zabini walked out of the library, he was soon cornered by the Malfoy heir.

"What were you doing trying to flirt with my fiancé?!" Draco stepped closer to him with a murderous glare.

"Nothing, I just…" Blaise started, seeming a little nervous.

"Go near her again, and I'll murder you in cold blood." Draco said before Blaise could even finish. "Did I make myself clear, Zabini?" he hissed angrily.

"Yes, of course…" Blaise said quickly, and he let out a breath as Draco strode away.

--

**A/N:** Well, dear readers, I'm back! (YAAY!! ;)) Of course I was sad to leave Hungary and my family, but I love England too!! Now, I won't promise as fast updates as before, more like one chapter a week because I have to work more than before, but I'll do my best!

Also, I know that Draco and Hermione's relationship is not developing that quickly, but there will be some action between them I promise! This fiction is rated M for a reason, they just have to get there. If you can't wait for the smut, check out my other story, which is a one-shot! ;)

Oh, and thank you so much for all the reviews for chapter 8, reviews are what keeps me going!! So please let me know what you thought of this chapter! Please REVIEW!! Thank youuu!:D


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

--

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Chapter 10

Hermione couldn't sleep. It was the night before the wedding, and although she knew that everything was already planned and taken care of (with Ginny's extraordinary help), she still couldn't help thinking that something very important has slipped her mind. She absentmindedly turned in the huge double bed and stared at the peacefully sleeping Draco. He looked so innocent in his sleep that Hermione forgot was she was thinking for a second. Then she quickly shook her head and sat up, she knew that staring at her sleeping fiancé will hardly help her remember what she might have forgotten.

She quickly made a checklist in her mind. The guest list was done and looked through a hundred million times and the invitations had been sent weeks ago. Maybe she forgot to invite someone important? No, but that couldn't be it. Even Harry and Ron helped her, and Draco looked through it as well, nothing could have gone wrong there. The food was being made by the Hogwarts house elves, but Hermione insisted that they should get paid for it. Her dress was already picked out with Ginny's help and had been bought; it was safely put away until the day of the wedding. Hermione went through her list like this, point by point and she didn't stop once until she got to the ceremony. Dumbledore offered to marry them, which Hermione gladly accepted. Then she stopped to think for a second. After a moment she realised what was wrong, as she looked at her watch in panic. It was nearly 3 in the morning.

As she quickly but quietly made her way out of the room, grabbing a cloak that she hastily put on her shoulders, she was trying to calm herself.

'_It will be alright…'_ she thought desperately. _'It doesn't matter that I don't know what exactly happens in a wizarding wedding after the vows. Dumbledore would surely have told me if something major was different from muggle weddings…'_ she tried to convince herself, but as she ran towards the library, not even caring if she got caught out of bed, she knew that she would only be able to relax after she looked up exactly what happens.

So she didn't even pause to think things over as she ran from aisle to aisle in the dark library until she reached the shelves that read _Wizarding Customs and Traditions._ Then she slowed down a bit as she ran her hands over the big dusty books, and finally after a couple of minutes' search, she pulled out a very thick and heavy one. She hastily sat down and opened the book on her lap, her wand providing the necessary light so she could find what she needed. As she found the right section she quickly began reading, as if hungry for the words printed on the old, yellowish pages.

Her breathing began to quicken and her eyes opened wide as she found the relevant paragraph, and she closed the book in shock as she saw her worst fears printed in the source that she trusted most: a library book. Now she started to _really_ panic.

She basically ran all the way back to the familiar portrait and dashed through the living room, finally jumping on the bed which she left not so long ago. She glanced at the clock and saw that she had been away for more than twenty minutes and realised that it was time she got some sleep. She hesitated for a moment, looking at Draco once more, who barely changed his position from when Hermione last saw him. Curiosity and mostly panic finally won over common sense and reasoning, and Hermione started shaking the Malfoy heir gently, while whispering his name.

"Hmmm, Hermione?" he murmured as she kept shaking his arm. "What is it, my love?" he mumbled; clearly not awake yet, as he squinted at her through his half lifted lids. Hermione stopped dead at hearing that and her mouth hung open in shock; he hadn't called her anything like that since they became friends, only in public. The rushing of Hermione's thoughts through her mind was almost audible.

"Wh.. what?" Hermione sat back and her face showed utter confusion as she tried to make sense of this new turn of events. "What did you call me?" she finally managed to say. Draco seemed to have woken up when he saw her dumbfounded expression and he hastily sat up as well.

"Oh, no, nothing!" he tried to reassure her quickly, and he hoped against hope that she couldn't see him blushing madly in the dark. "What was it that you wanted?" he added, hoping to distract her.

"Oh, that…" Hermione slightly shook her head, now more confused than ever. Her problem came rushing back again, and it seemed to have brought her back to reality. "Yeah, sorry for waking you, I just had to ask you something." she looked at him again, her voice more determined.

"Oh, it's fine, just ask." Draco said, clearly relieved.

"Well, I'm worried about our vows. Do wizarding vows really bound for life?" Hermione asked, anxious for his answer. Draco seemed to look uncomfortable again.

"Umm, actually yeah." he started, avoiding eye contact with her. "I haven't even thought of that.. But I'm sure Dumbledore can take care of it somehow. We can talk to him in the morning, first thing." he tried to calm her.

"Okay, that's a good idea…" Hermione mumbled, looking everywhere but at Draco. "We should sleep then. I'm sorry I disturbed you." she seemed to pull herself together as she got under the blanket.

"No problem.." Draco said, lying down again. "Sleep well." he added. Hermione gave him a weak smile and they both tried to get some sleep before the big day.

--

The next morning went by in a blur. Dumbledore reassured them that there is something he can do to make the marriage reversible, and that it wouldn't be noticed by anyone. They made him promise that he will do it and he agreed, clearly amused. This was a big relief for Hermione, who spent most of the hours of preparation with Ginny, who was almost more excited than her.

Harry and Ron caught Hermione a few hours before the ceremony, who was getting dressed with the help of Ginny in the bathroom she shared with Draco. The groom had been banished from the place for the rest of the day.

When her two friends timidly knocked on the door, Hermione was already in her dress, which was simple but beautiful. Ginny was making her hair; her wild curls would be finally tamed, cascading down her back. Hermione told them to come in and they stopped dead when they saw her, gaping at Hermione's beauty.

"Wow, Hermione…" Harry started, still staring at her. "You look… wonderful." he managed to get out, while Ron was just nodding, his mouth hanging open, as Hermione blushed prettily.

"Ahem…" Ginny tried to get her boyfriend's attention, before Hermione could respond. "Earth to Harry. If you don't stop very soon, I'm going to have to hurt you." she warned, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry Ginny." Harry blushed. "Of course, you look breath-taking as well. It's just, I've never seen Hermione like this." he tried to defend himself.

"I know, I know." Ginny laughed, giving Harry a peck on his lips. "She _is_ beautiful. Ron, you can close your mouth now!" she added, giggling. Ron, obliged, his ears turning scarlet.

"Okay, now that everyone's blushed and got very embarrassed except for me, I'm going to have to ask you two to leave us, we're already running late! Sorry, maid of honour duties!" she joked, trying to push them out of the room.

"Sorry guys, I'm glad you came by though!" Hermione said hastily, glancing nervously at Ginny, as if she were scared that if she didn't oblige, she'd be in trouble.

"Calm down, Ginny, we just came by to check if everything was okay and if you needed help with anything!" Ron said annoyed, not letting her push him out.

"Yeah, we can't believe you're getting married today, Hermione!" Harry said, with a quick glance at Ginny, who temporarily gave up on getting them out of the room.

"I know, I feel the same way!" Hermione said with a sigh, looking at her reflection in the big mirror in front of her. "But you know this is necess…" but she couldn't finish, because she was interrupted by the desperate signs and waves of Harry and Ron behind Ginny's back, who was looking at her expectantly. "I mean, it is a nice way of expressing our love to all the people we care about.." Hermione quickly corrected herself, praying that Ginny wouldn't notice. She was lucky, because Ginny turned to the boys instead, who looked extremely relieved.

"Yes, yes, we all know this is a big step, but now we really have to get ready." Ginny pleaded. "Can't you go and find Dumbledore or McGonagall and ask them if you can help with anything?" she added, her hands on her hips, her eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, of course!" Harry said hastily, now keen on leaving before anything else could slip out. He and Ron hurried out of the room, leaving Hermione and Ginny to put the last touches on her appearance.

--

The wedding was held on the grounds of Hogwarts; all students and Hermione's closest relatives were invited. Even Narcissa was there, disguised, but she didn't look quite as happy as Hermione's parents. Although after Draco reminded her that he was doing most of this so she could be safe from Voldemort and the other Death Eaters, she seemed to have softened a bit.

When Draco saw Hermione walking down the aisle, he had to gulp and take a deep breath to steady himself; he was overcome by her beauty. For a moment he lost sight of what the reason behind the whole wedding was and he beamed at Hermione happily, as she made her way slowly towards him, led by her father. Hermione was radiant and she seemed to be glowing with happiness, but Draco quickly reminded himself that she must be doing it for the crowd.

After the vows, when Dumbledore declared that he could kiss his bride, Draco stepped closer to Hermione absentmindedly; sweeping her off her feet and dipping her low, holding her by her waist and his lips finally met hers in a passionate and possessive kiss. The crowd cheered wildly as the couple was surrounded by a golden glow. When Draco straightened up, bringing Hermione with him and still keeping her close, he breathed in her sweet scent and realised that throughout the whole ceremony he had been waiting for the moment when he could finally kiss her. As Hermione slightly pushed on his chest, smiling up at him, he reluctantly released her, but he made sure that he was by her side until the last of the guests had left.

--

"So, how did that brilliant plan of yours go?" Greyback voice echoed off of the walls of the big cave that they decided to meet in. Zabini's hesitating silence seemed to have been enough answer for the werewolf.

"You failed?!" he drawled. "Didn't I warn you that I do not accept failure?!" his voice became more and more sinister.

"Yes…" said Blaise resentfully. "But I failed. They seem to be in love. They got married today." he realised his mistake the moment after.

"WHAT??" Greyback bellowed. "And you haven't warned me?!" he jumped towards the terrified Blaise like a wolf attacking his prey, but Blaise turned on the spot just on time and apparated away, leaving Greyback who couldn't slow down and crashed into the wall.

--

"Thank you for meeting me at this hour, Mr Malfoy, what I wish to discuss with you cannot wait." the headmaster said looking at an impatient and exhausted Draco from his chair behind his table in the headmaster's office.

"Yes, professor." Draco said quickly, gesturing for the old wizard to continue.

"The matter I am speaking of is very… hmm… personal and also extremely important." Dumbledore said, catching Draco's attention, who was surprised to see the headmaster embarrassed. "Surely, you've heard of the magical bond between the bride and the groom after a wizarding wedding?... No, don't worry, I am not talking about the vows, I kept my promise." he quickly reassured Draco, who seemed to have gotten quite disturbed for a moment. When he relaxed, Dumbledore went on. "I have told you before of this connection, it enables the married couple to sense if the other is in danger, which is quite helpful for us, considering the situation." Draco nodded in agreement. "However, the bond is not created simply by exchanging the vows… There needs to be the final… ahem… sealing of the marriage." Dumbledore looked more uncomfortable than ever, his piercing blue eyes pleading for Draco to understand, so that he didn't have to explain any further.

After a moment of staring into each other's eyes, Draco finally understood. He couldn't help blushing and he quickly looked away.

"Oh…" he said simply. "Do you mean the…"

"Yes." Dumbledore quickly said, thankful for the fast thinking of Slytherins. "So if you could make sure that… it happens…"

"Of course." Draco quickly cut him off, not wanting to hear any more of this. "And if there's nothing else, I am very tired and…"

"Yes, yes, certainly." Dumbledore understood his discomfort. "That is all. Good night, Mr Malfoy." he rushed to dismiss him, glad that the conversation was over.

Draco felt the same way, as he quickly made his way out of the room, still red in the face. As he hurried along the dark corridors he couldn't suppress his excitement, but his joy was overshadowed by his fear of Hermione's possible reaction.

--

Hermione was putting away her dress and washing her face while thinking about her wedding. She enjoyed herself very much, she hadn't had this much fun in a long time. Her feet hurt from all the dancing and she couldn't wait to fall into bed and sleep until noon. She quickly thanked her providential planning for having the wedding on a Saturday, this way she didn't have to worry about classes the next day.

As she made her way to the bedroom she suddenly stopped when she saw Draco entering the room through the other door. He also stopped when he saw her, looking like he had been deep in thoughts just moments ago. Hermione smiled at him, sure that some kind of a joke about them being married was coming her way any second now. She was surprised to see that instead of a sarcastic comment, he was simply staring at her. When he saw her almost see-through silk bathrobe, which she now conscientiously pulled tighter around herself, his eyes seemed to turn a shade darker and a smirk played on his lips as he slowly but determinedly made his way to her. Hermione eyed him suspiciously and as he got closer she instinctively stepped back, but her back hit the door to the bathroom. As he stepped in front of her, his body only inches away, he leaned close to her ear.

"Good evening, beautiful…" he whispered sensually in her ear, and as his warm breath hit her sensitive skin, she slightly shivered. She seemed uncomfortable with the way his approach made her feel, because she made an attempt to slid out from the gap between Draco's body and the door. Draco suddenly brought his hands up to her waist, keeping her in place. "Don't be scared of me, my darling." he whispered, his lips nearly touching her skin, his body gently pressing against hers. "I'm your husband, remember?" at this Hermione softly whimpered.

"What was that now, love?" Draco asked, his lips slowly moving from her ear to her neck, barely touching her skin, which was getting goose bumps. Hermione couldn't think clearly, one of his hands slid up her back, drawing her closer to his warm body, so she could feel his hard muscles rippling under his shirt.

"I said I know you are..." she gasped as his lips suddenly met her skin with full force and he sucked gently on her neck. Her hands involuntarily found their way up his back, one of them now clinging to his neck for support, the other entangled in his silky hair. Draco felt himself getting even harder at her submission, but he reminded himself that he couldn't lose control, not now. His left hand was still pulling her closer while the other slid up her slender back and sneaked under her head, holding it firmly.

He suddenly brought his head up from her neck and she was mesmerised by his dark but still stormy eyes, which seemed to glow with desire. As she stared up at him, he let her head fall back a bit as his lips inched their way towards hers, which seemed to act like a magnet. Their eyes were already half closed, Hermione could feel his breath on her face when she couldn't take it anymore and she closed the distance between them. Their lips fought against each other in a silent battle, when Draco couldn't contain himself and his tongue suddenly slid into her sweet mouth. Hermione welcomed the intrusion and her own tongue battled his for control with just as much fervour.

She gasped as he swiftly lifted her up and took her to the bed, laying her down and covering her body with his own. Hermione moaned as he sucked on her neck again. Draco momentarily lost control then and ripped the robe from her body so she lay completely naked before his eyes. His gaze followed her every curve greedily and finally he glanced at her blushing face, which was surrounded by her curly hair.

"Merlin, you look beautiful." he murmured as he attacked her lips again, his hands roaming all over her body, lingering on her firm breasts. She gasped as his thumbs brushed her already hardening nipples and she desperately clung to his shirt, trying to get rid of the last layer of fabric separating their skins. Draco happily obliged by discarding his shirt and feeling her hot skin against his made his mind clouded with craving for her. Her small hands were feeling his every muscle and as he suddenly moved between her thighs, slightly forcing them open with his strong legs, her hands clutched desperately at his shoulders for support as she moaned softly into his neck. Draco fought to see through the fog that seemed to gather in front of his eyes, he kept reminding himself to go slow; it didn't seem to work well though.

His hand slowly made its way down her stomach and gently slid between her legs, and as he felt the wetness there at the same time he also felt his hardness twitch uncomfortably against its barriers, and he groaned as Hermione struggled for breath at the feel of his hand. He continued to move his hand slowly in teasing circles, silencing Hermione's moans with a passionate kiss. As one of his long fingers slid into her hot depth, Hermione moaned into his mouth and lifter her back off of the bed, clutching her legs around his waist to pull him closer at the same time.

Draco couldn't take it anymore, with a groan he disengaged his mouth from hers and within seconds his trousers lay forgotten on the floor along with his boxers. Hermione's eyes widened at the sheer size of him, but she didn't have time to panic, because a moment later he was on top of her again, his hot lips trailing kisses down her neck, which made her shiver, and she moaned when she felt his hardness rubbing against her core teasingly. Draco knew he was at the end of his limits so he carefully positioned himself at her entrance, still distracting her with kisses. However when the moment came, he hesitated. He looked into her dark eyes.

"Hermione, I…" he started, but he couldn't finish.

"Draco, I know we have to do this to seal the marriage." Hermione said, surprising him. "I _want_ to do this." she said seriously, staring into his eyes.

"Thank Merlin!" Draco uttered and their lips met once again.

With a swift movement he was inside of her but he stopped abruptly as she cried out and her nails sank into his back. They were both panting, Draco looking at her, terrified, that he had hurt her. As Hermione's pants slowed down, she looked at him encouragingly, nodding her approval. Draco relaxed again and he experimentally pulled out a bit and slid in all the way again. Hermione moaned in pleasure, which gave Draco the final encouragement he needed. He still kept his slow pace, but his movements didn't cease as he moved his hips together with hers. This seemed to have teased Hermione to no end.

"Oooh, Draco!" she moaned. "Please… Faster.." she pleaded.

Draco felt his desire taking over completely, as he slammed into her faster and faster, her moans and cries driving him on. Her legs were clutching his hips, pulling him further and further in, making him go mad. His hands travelled down her sides and grabbed her hips, so he could thrust in faster. He felt his climax approaching fast, so he moved his lips to her ear.

"Come on, love…" he moaned. "Come for me…"

"Aaah, Draco…" this seemed to have driven Hermione over the edge and she screamed in pleasure as her hands clung to him for dear life. Draco cried out as he felt her walls closing tightly around him, making him empty his hot seed deep into her core. After a couple of more thrusts, he fell on top of her, feeling boneless, both of them panting.

When he felt her hot and sweaty body shiver underneath him, he moved to the side and pulled the warm blanket on top of them, Hermione already dozing off in his strong arms. As he felt his own sleepiness, he fought to keep his eyes open a little while longer, so he could stare at her angel-like face as she slept.

"Hermione…" he whispered, looking at her longingly. "I think I love you…" he said in barely a whisper, as his head hit the pillow next to Hermione and soon dreamless sleep consumed him as well.

--

**A/N:** Muhahahaha… Finally, some smut! ;) I hope it didn't come out too cheesy though… Let me know what you think!

Please, please REVIEW!! :D It's what makes me keep writing and your nice reviews really make my day! :)


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all Harry Potter characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

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Chapter 11

It was already dark outside as Draco strode through the corridors, making his way back to the rooms he shared with Hermione. He just left the headmaster's office, but he couldn't stop thinking about their meeting. Dumbledore wanted his help and asked him to accompany Snape on a mission, and they had to leave the next morning. Draco was happy to play a more active part in the activities of the Order, but he couldn't help cursing Dumbledore for the timing. It was only five days after the wedding, and things were going well between him and Hermione, though he hadn't tried to advance on her again. It seemed to him as though they'd always been this close, but he always had to remind himself that Hermione hadn't acted any different with him than with Ron or Harry, not even after they slept together.

Draco's expression hardened as he recalled watching Hermione all the time, trying to catch even a little sign from her that would show him that she started to feel differently about him, but sadly there weren't any. He was greatly disappointed by this, which made him even more confused about his own feelings. He'd never been in love before, so he wasn't quite sure that he was in love, but as time passed he became more and more convinced. As he made his way down a dark corridor, he realised that he was so deeply in thought that he already passed the entrance to their living room without noticing. He shook his head tiredly as he turned around and after a couple of minutes he was already inside.

Hermione glanced up at him from her book as he entered, and smiled broadly, which made him forget everything he'd been thinking about as he smiled back.

"Hey, what took you so long?" Hermione looked slightly concerned as she put her book away and stood up, stretching. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything's fine…" Draco avoided looking at her; he didn't want to torture himself by looking at her slender form as she stretched. "Dumbledore asked me to help Snape, so I'll have to go on this mission…" he told her, as he made his way to the kitchen. He disappeared for a few seconds, then reappeared with a glass of water in hand.

"A mission?" Hermione looked at him, confused. "What kind of mission?"

"Oh, I can't tell you that…" Draco winked at her playfully. "It's top secret. I can't tell anyone." he added quickly as she started furrowing her brows.

"I see." Hermione said crossly. "So when are you leaving on this _mission_?" Draco didn't miss the sarcastic tone in her voice.

"It _is_ a mission, a very serious one, so you can stop making fun of me." he chuckled. "We're leaving tomorrow morning." he added in answer to her question.

"What?" Hermione looked concerned again, her sarcasm completely gone. "That soon?" Draco thought she sounded disappointed, but then he realised that he probably just imagined it. "How long will you be gone?"

"Oh, just a couple of weeks…" Draco said light-heartedly, but inside he was quite upset about being away for that long.

"Really? That long?..." Hermione echoed his thoughts. She seemed sad and worried at the same time, and Draco couldn't hide his smile.

"Yeah, but don't worry, it'll go really fast." he said teasingly as he stepped closer to her, his glass already on the kitchen table.

"Well, take care of yourself then…" Hermione said sheepishly, not looking in his eyes.

"Hermione, I'm not planning to die any time soon, so stop worrying!" he laughed.

"I'm serious!" Hermione answered crossly, frowning at him.

"Alright, alright, I'll be careful I promise!" Draco said with a wink and he made his way to the bedroom. Hermione sighed in resignation and slowly followed him.

--

The next morning went by in a blur, Draco got up early to get ready and Hermione offered to make him breakfast, which he gladly accepted, since it was too early to go to the Great Hall. Soon he was ready to go, and Hermione gave him a quick hug, but he pulled her closer and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"I'm not the only one who should be careful, you know that right?" Draco eyed her worriedly.

"Yes, of course!" Hermione smiled brightly. "I'm a big girl you know, I can take care of myself." she added seriously.

"Well, you proved that the last time when I left you alone for five minutes, didn't you?" Draco chuckled.

"Oh shut up, you know what I mean!" Hermione glanced up at him.

"Yeah, yeah…" Draco shook his head in disbelief. "Oh, can you please give this to Potter and Weasley?" he handed her a folded parchment. "It's from Dumbledore and I don't have time to give it to them myself. It's secret and it's charmed so only they can open it." he added with a smirk as Hermione eyed the parchment in her hand huffily, obviously annoyed by being excluded.

"Fine…" she huffed and put the parchment in her pocket. Draco couldn't help thinking that she was cute when she was angry like this.

He quickly said goodbye to her and left, because he didn't want to make it even harder for himself to leave her.

--

Later that morning Hermione found Harry and Ron already sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, stuffing their faces with porridge. She sighed and smiled at them warmly as she sat down next to them, thinking that at least they never change.

"Hey Hermione, how are you?" Harry smiled at her as she helped herself to a piece of toast and marmalade. "Where's Draco?" he added, looking at the Slytherin table.

Hermione quickly explained about the mysterious mission and they all looked expectantly at the professors' table, looking for Snape, but obviously, he wasn't there. Hermione suddenly remembered the parchment, and quickly took it out of her pocket and handed it to Harry.

"Oh, and Draco told me that this is for you and Ron from Dumbledore." she told him. "Supposed to be a secret…" she rolled her eyes and returned to her toast as Harry hurriedly opened the parchment. He quickly scanned it and handed it to Ron, looking confused. Ron took it from him and read the few lines.

_Please look after Hermione while I'm gone! Oh and don't tell her that this is from me…_

_Thanks_

_D. M._

He looked back at Harry, who still looked bewildered, but then just shrugged and returned to his food. Ron looked confusedly at the parchment one more time and shook his head, refolding it and putting it in his bag.

--

Hermione wandered around aimlessly in the corridors the afternoon after Draco left. She was thinking about her relationship with Draco and how sweet he was at their wedding night. He helped her a lot with her uneasiness about the situation, and it actually became a wonderful night which she knew she would never forget. Before she used to be quite afraid that she would regret the whole wedding, but it hadn't been like that at all, she was happy that Draco was her first; his experience made it a lot easier for her. On top of that, she knew that the whole scenario was there for a reason, and it happened most importantly for her own safety.

She sighed as she looked out one of the windows and stared at the Forbidden Forest, which was brightened by the golden light of the setting sun, making all the brown leaves get a scarlet glow. Time was going too fast, it made Hermione's mind spin crazily. She was so used to Draco by now that when he was gone it felt like a part of her was missing. Much like it was with Harry and Ron over the holidays, she always missed them greatly. However, the intimacy she shared with Draco somehow enhanced the bond they now had and it increased Hermione's uneasiness about not having him around her all the time.

She chuckled as she remembered how most students reacted in the first weeks when they found out that she and Draco were together and of course how Draco made a game out of their public display, overdoing it every time he got the chance. After the wedding, no one even gave them a second glance when Draco insisted walking around with his arm draped over her waist or shoulders or when they "had to" snog in public. Which, according to Draco, they had to do quite often. Hermione smiled to herself and walked on, slightly shaking her head.

When she got back to their living room, she was saddened by the emptiness of it, so she quickly turned around and made her way to the Gryffindor common room, where she could talk to her friends for a while before going to bed. It was going to be strange to sleep alone in the huge bed again, she thought gloomily.

--

The weeks passed quickly, just as Draco promised. It was already two and a half weeks after Draco left, and Hermione got quite used to living alone, but she still missed Draco's presence. She was chatting away with Ginny at the Gryffindor table at dinner, when suddenly the door of the Great Hall burst open. Most of the people stopped eating abruptly and stared at the blond who just stood in the doorway, glazing down the Gryffindor table. When his eyes met Hermione's, her breath hitched in her throat at its intensity.

His hungry gaze stayed glued to hers as he made his way down the table in long strides until he reached her. She gulped as she stared up at him, their eyes still locked.

"Hello, beautiful…" he murmured as he grabbed her hand possessively and pulled her to her feet. Before Hermione could say anything in response, he pressed his lips against hers forcefully, kissing her passionately. His possessiveness made the hair stand up all the way down Hermione's back and she held onto his shoulders for support. The Great Hall cheered wildly as they watched the married couple's embrace, except for maybe Harry and Ron, who looked away pointedly.

When Draco let go of her, she didn't even have time to take a deep breath, because Draco was already pulling her after him, clearly away from the Hall.

"Draco…" Hermione panted from all the running, which she had to do to keep up with him. Draco ignored him and they were already out of the Great Hall, where people were still cheering violently, wolf whistling and shouting after them.

Before Hermione could register where they were going, Draco already pulled her into an empty classroom. The next thing she knew was that she was pushed up against the door they just came through and Draco's hot body was pressing against her in a teasing way. She tried to squirm away from him, but a second later her mind was clouded by the desperate kisses that Draco was showering her with.

"I… need… you…" Draco whispered huskily between kisses, and Hermione's last resistance was blown away as her hands flew up to his head and got entangled in his soft hair.

Draco moaned greedily at her submission and hoisted her up by the thighs, which made Hermione gasp. Draco carried her away from the door, and settled her down on the big table that was usually used by the professors. His mouth never left hers while he carried her, but after she was sitting safely on the table, he pulled away for a moment and pointed his wand at the door, muttering a couple of spells, most probably locking the door and placing a silencing spell on the room. Then he turned back to Hermione and as he realised that her eyes were dark with lust, he felt his own pupils dilate and his wand fell out of his hand, clattering loudly on the floor.

The next moment they were already kissing each other eagerly, clutching at the other's body. Draco hastily pulled her cloak off of her, and after a minute most of their clothes lay forgotten in a pile on the floor next to Draco's wand. Draco was pushing her gently onto her back, so she was lying down on the edge of the table, her legs clutching his waist as he was standing between them, bending forward so he was leaning above her. As he stepped out of his trousers and kicked them aside, his only clothing remained his white shirt, which was open for Hermione's hands to roam over all the hard muscles of his chest and stomach. Hermione was only in her knickers, and she gasped as Draco ripped off the restricting garment.

She moaned deeply as she felt his hardness at her entrance, her wriggling making Draco crazy with desire. He couldn't contain himself any longer; he'd been waiting for this for too long already. He sealed their mouths in a fervent kiss and with a desperate thrust, he was inside of her. Hermione cried out and grabbed onto him even harder as Draco deepened their kiss. He slowly moved out of her and as she felt him leaving her body, she pushed her hips against his, wanting to be filled again in that perfect way that made her feel whole.

Draco's vision became blurry from the pleasure she caused by moving against him so teasingly, and with a swift movement he thrust back in again, building up a rhythm that drove Hermione mad with anticipation. As he increased his speed, she felt her orgasm build up in her slowly.

"Aaaah, Draco, faster!" she moaned as he passionately bit into the crook of her neck.

Draco was happy to comply, and he thrust into her harder and faster, until he was panting and sweating just as much as her.

"Oh, fuck, Hermione!" he growled in a deep voice that made Hermione shiver.

She was still so tight around him that he was seeing stars from the pleasure of being inside of her. As they moved against each other in harmony, Draco soon knew that he couldn't hold on much longer. After a couple of minutes he emptied himself inside of her with one hard thrust, crying out her name. When Hermione felt his release, she was pushed over the edge as well, moaning loudly and arching off of the table. Draco moved in and out of her a couple of more times and then they just lay there boneless for a few minutes.

As Hermione started drifting off, she shivered slightly, which made Draco come back to reality as well. He gently brushed her lips with his.

"Darling…" he whispered. "We should go back to our rooms. We can't sleep here…"

Hermione nodded slightly with her eyes still closed, a smile on her face. Draco watched her for a moment, feeling happier than ever before. As he felt the warmth in his chest, he decided that it was time he told her about his feelings.

"Hermione, I…" he started huskily, watching her open her eyes slowly. He was overcome by the intensity of his emotions and for a second he just stared at her glowing eyes.

"Draco…" Hermione whispered with a smile still on her face. "I'm so happy we've become so close. I've never dreamed of finding such a good friend when we moved in together."

'_Wait, did she say friend?'_ Draco thought with a sinking heart.

"I don't want our friendship to be in jeopardy because of this, Draco…" Hermione added with concern in her voice. "So we should be more careful. This shouldn't happen again…" she gestured at their position with her hand.

Draco's smile was suddenly wiped off of his face. She saw him as a _friend_?! After the passionate and amazing sex they just had?... He was lost. But more importantly, he felt the warmth leaving his chest as suddenly as it came. He nodded at her in response, avoiding eye contact, because he didn't want her to see the hurt he was sure was showing in his eyes.

He suddenly realised that they were still in an intimate position, his shirt being the only clothing on him and her lying naked underneath him. He wanted to relish the feeling of having her to himself like that a little longer, but he knew that considering what she just told him, he should give her some space as soon as possible. So he quickly got to his feet, dressing up as quickly as he could after handing Hermione her clothes. Hermione still smiled at him when they looked at each other, so he assumed that she wasn't feeling as awkward as him. Of course not, since she wasn't the one who almost confessed her undying love to someone who clearly didn't feel the same way, he thought bitterly…

--

Draco felt gloomy for days after the incidence, which didn't go unnoticed by everyone. Hermione was oblivious of course; she still acted as if they were the best of friends, which was a lot better than when she hated him, Draco had to admit that. But still.

The next day, Pansy found him after Potions, wandering around aimlessly, with a blank expression. She quickly walked up to him.

"Draco?..." she looked up at him expectantly, and she pouted when his face didn't light up with recognition and joy as he saw her. He just stared at her, still expressionless.

"What's wrong, Draco?" she pressed on, stepping closer to him, her breasts almost brushing his chest. When Draco still didn't react, Pansy took it as an approval, so she seductively sneaked her arms around his neck and teasingly pressed her lips against his. Draco's eyes closed automatically, and Hermione's face immediately materialised in his mind. He was already kissing Pansy back with his arms around her waist, when his eyes opened a bit and he realised that the person who was pressed up against him was not Hermione at all. He quickly pushed Pansy away from him, wiping his mouth, clearly irritated.

"What's wrong with you, Pansy?!" he shouted at her, his eyes ice-cold as he glared at her. "I'm married!"

"It's not my fault if your precious _wife_ can't satisfy you!" Pansy spat angrily, still shocked from being pushed away so abruptly.

"Don't you dare insulting Hermione, you brainless little slut!" he towered over her, his voice so threatening that Pansy couldn't help shivering. Before she could answer, he was already walking away from her, leaving her gaping after him with her mouth hanging open.

--

Harry and Ron were walking back from Quidditch practise, talking enthusiastically about the upcoming match they had against Ravenclaw, when they saw a lonely figure standing by the lake, his cloak billowing in the wind. They caught a glimpse of his blond hair and they stopped abruptly when they realised it was Draco.

"Should we go over there?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"No, he needs privacy…" Ron murmured as he stared uneasily at the Slytherin's back. "He's been like this for a couple of days now… At least when he's not with Hermione…"

"Or when he thinks she's not looking at him…" Harry added. "Do you think there's something wrong between them?" he asked worriedly.

"No, if there were something serious, Hermione would have told us already, and she seems happy." Ron answered, resuming his walk towards the castle. Harry hesitated but followed him.

"What if Hermione doesn't know? What if it's about Draco?" Harry asked, glancing back at Draco.

"Well, I don't know…" Ron said, confused. "That note was kind of weird… Do you think that has anything to do with it?" he turned to Harry, who shrugged. Suddenly Harry's face brightened with realisation, as he looked at Ron excitedly.

"He must have feelings for her!" he said in a matter-of-fact voice. "That must be why he's so depressed!"

"Why would that upset him?" Ron looked bewildered and even more confused than before.

"Hmmm…" Harry looked thoughtful for a second. "Of course!" he shouted and Ron jumped distractedly. "Hermione's been on about how good friends they are with Draco! She must have said that to him too, so he knows she doesn't want more than friendship, and that's why he's like this!" he was really excited now that he figured it all out.

"I dunno, mate…" Ron didn't seem convinced. "I think that's a bit far-fetched…" he shook his head disbelievingly.

"Oh, just wait and see!" Harry said knowingly as they reached the doors of the castle. "Let's just see what happens…"

--

**A/N:** There you go! :D Some more smut ;) Thanks for all the great reviews, I LOVE reading them!! I hope you liked this chapter as well. There's not that much more to come, but you'll see anyway.. ;)

Please, REVIEW!! Please?...


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: All HP characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

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Chapter 12

The following week was one of the worst so far in Draco Malfoy's life. He felt like a zombie, walking around without a coherent chain of thought when he had nothing specific to do. Even Hermione started noticing that something was off, but he always managed to shake her off by saying it was the war, or the sudden death of his father, or he was worried about his mother. He was definitely running out of excuses and Hermione was becoming suspicious as well, he was sure about that. He still couldn't manage to get a grip and force himself out of the brainless stupor he was in. At night he struggled to fall asleep, Hermione's closeness bothered him so much that he had to turn the other way and clutch his hands around his torso desperately to restrain himself from hugging her in her sleep. Which would obviously have been a huge mistake.

It was another sleepless night, when he – again – couldn't stop thinking about Hermione, and it didn't help that she was there right next to him. If he reached out with his hand, he could feel her warm body… But he quickly told himself to stop and now he couldn't stop thinking how pathetic he was. There had to be a better solution than this… Well, anything is better than doing nothing, which was what he had been doing until now. This started another chain of thought in his head, steering him in a different direction.

'_Why don't you realise it already, you moron?!' _the annoying voice taunted in his head. _'You have to fight for her! Merlin, you are pathetic… I thought Malfoys were supposed to always have their way.'_

Interestingly, the voice didn't annoy Draco as much as it usually did. Actually, this was some kind of a wake up call for him, and suddenly he wished he thought of this earlier. He supposed he must have been wallowing in self pity too much to think at all, but nonetheless, he was still mad at himself. Now that he was thinking of the new plan that was starting to form in his head, he instantly felt better. Soon he fell into a dreamless sleep without realising.

--

Next morning Hermione was surprised to see that her husband was already out of bed. It was Saturday, and he usually slept in for a lot longer than her. She shrugged to herself after a couple of seconds and hurried to the bathroom so she could meet her friends at breakfast before they went to Quidditch practise.

The Great Hall was already full when she arrived; first she instinctively glanced at the Slytherin table to check if Draco was there. He was, and he was smirking at her with a certain glint in his eyes that made her feel a little uneasy. She hasn't seen him smirk like that for a while and it gave her the feeling that he was up to something. She gave him a hesitant smile, shook her head to clear it and quickly joined her friends. Ginny was already squirming in her seat with anticipation; she had been clearly waiting for her to share a gossip, most probably. But after Hermione sat and greeted everyone, Ginny didn't have time to start talking, because the owls suddenly filled the air with loud whooshing and the students started shouting in excitement, so all proper conversation was drowned out. Hermione smiled at her friend apologetically, she knew how excited Ginny was, and felt bad that she had to wait when she was already so impatient. But as Hermione glanced up wearily, waiting for her newspaper to arrive, another and slightly bigger package landed in her lap. The big grey owl that dropped it was already on its way, and Hermione glanced after it in wonder, since she had no idea who it belonged to. All her friends were staring at her in anticipation, especially Ginny, who seemed to have forgotten all about the very important information that she was dying to share only minutes ago. Harry and Ron barely glanced up from their food, which did not surprise Hermione. She weighed the package carefully; it was very light compared to its size.

"Be careful, Hermione!" Harry warned between two bites from his toast. "We don't know who might have sent it, it could be dangerous…"

"Don't be silly, Harry, all packages that come from outside of the school are checked for jinxes and curses." Hermione looked at him as if that was as obvious as the fact that Voldemort was evil. "They wouldn't let anyone get hurt like that. Especially now, with the war going on…" Hermione looked back at the pack with more curiosity now; she wondered who sent her something. Harry just shrugged in response and returned to his food.

"Come _on_, Hermione, open it already!" Ginny pleaded. "We're all dying to see what it is!" she looked at the others sitting near them and they all nodded in agreement.

Hermione sighed in resignation and carefully unwrapped the package. She gasped as she took out the huge bouquet of scarlet roses that were fastened together with a red silk ribbon. All the girls sighed contentedly and some even in jealousy, and the boys turned away instantly with disinterest as Hermione stared at the flowers with her mouth hanging open.

"Well, open the card already!" Ginny whined with a slight giggle apparent in her voice. "Not that we don't know who it's from already…" she added playfully, glancing across the Hall to the Slytherin table.

Hermione instinctively followed Ginny's gaze and stared at Draco in shock, as he grinned right back at her, blowing her a kiss and winking. Hermione looked back down at the roses in her hands and then back up at Draco as she slowly comprehended what Ginny, and of course Draco, was implying.

"Lucky bastard…" Ginny muttered grimly, staring at her food and then glancing up at her boyfriend, who was currently talking to Ron about Quidditch, apparently not even realising what happened. Ginny sighed and looked back Hermione, who was still gaping at her gift.

"Oh, Merlin, get over it already and read the damn card!" Ginny seemed to have lost her temper for a second, which made Hermione wake up. She glanced quickly at Ginny before taking the small piece of parchment that was tied to the roses by the ribbon and read it hastily.

_To my beautiful rose. Love you with all my heart…_

_Your Draco_

Hermione had to re-read the lines a couple of times before believing that they were really there, before glancing up at Draco again. His seat was empty. Hermione was more and more confused. Then without warning, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her up from her seat and spun her around. Suddenly, she was staring into the stormy grey eyes of none other than Draco himself. He was still grinning when he pulled her closer by her waist and connected their lips in a swift movement. Hermione still hasn't got used to his passionate kisses and they still left her breathless, thoughtless and dizzy. When he finally let her go, she was gasping for oxygen and hanging onto his arms to stop her from falling.

"Do you like the flowers?" he teased, his mouth right next to her ear, making her shiver.

"Y-yes, they are beautiful…" she breathed. "Thank you…" she added quickly.

"You are more than welcome." he chuckled. "See you later, love." he whispered before pecking her on the cheek and striding out of the Hall. Hermione stared after him in shock, when suddenly Ginny's voice reminded her of where she was and she sat back down hastily, blushing furiously.

"Wow, that was… cool." Ginny finished lamely, not being able to find a better word.

"Yeah…" Hermione muttered, staring at her plate, clearly embarrassed.

When she finally looked around, she sighed in relief because no one was staring at her like she suspected. It seemed that most of the students already got used to their public displays of affection, which was mostly thanks to Draco, she had to admit. She felt kind of thankful for that now. Ginny was still shaking her head in disbelief, after re-reading the card.

"You are _so_ lucky…" she said glumly.

"Oh, stop it Ginny, I bet Harry pays a lot of attention to you too…" Hermione trailed off as she glanced at Harry hopefully, but she was forced to turn her gaze away quickly because he was still talking to Ron, not even aware of her conversation with Ginny. "Well, just give him time… He's pretty new to this whole relationship thing." she quickly added, making Ginny smile a little and nod hopefully.

Then her thoughts quickly returned to Draco and she still couldn't come up with a proper answer that would explain his behaviour. She gave up after a few minutes, deciding that it must have been for the crowd, but she still couldn't get the words of the card out of her head.

'_Love you with all my heart… But he must have known that not many people, if any at all, will read the card… Was it really necessary to exaggerate that much?'_ she thought confusedly.

Then she shook her head to clear her mind and finished breakfast with her friends. She decided that she would talk to Draco about it later and then she could demand an explanation.

--

When Hermione arrived, Draco was already lying down on the couch in the living room, reading a book. He glanced up at Hermione, who was carrying the roses to the kitchen, and smirked as he returned to his book.

"Hello, darling!" he mused. "How are we this morning?" he chuckled as she returned from the kitchen, she must have put the roses into a vase, because she wasn't carrying them anymore. She rolled her eyes briefly at his smugness as she settled herself down in one of the armchairs near the couch.

"Very well, thank you…" she answered, glaring at him. "Someone seems to be in a very good mood today. Care to explain the roses?" she asked as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Not really…" he answered with a grin, not even looking at her from his book. "Can't I send gifts to my own wife?" he added playfully.

"Of course you can…" Hermione scowled. "I was just surprised because it was so sudden…"

"Well, at least one of us is still thinking of issues like the supposed spy in the school…" Draco teased, acting all serious.

"Yeah, I guess." Hermione gave up with a sigh and stood to walk to the bedroom.

"Wait, I was thinking…" Draco hastily sat up, stopping Hermione halfway. "Do you want to grab a bite this evening? I'll take you to Hogsmeade or something." he seemed to be contemplating their options.

"You want to take me on a date?" Hermione stared at him incredulously. "I'm already married to you, remember?" she laughed, thinking he was joking.

"And married couples don't go out?..." Draco raised his eyebrows, silencing Hermione. "Besides, I'm really bored. Nothing's happening lately…" he added quickly.

"Okay… So for you the war is not enough? You need more action?" Hermione was getting even more confused.

"That's not what I meant." Draco scowled. "Oh, come on! What's the big deal? Friends go out too you know. I thought we were friends!" he taunted, and when he saw her face he noted with a grin that he had her.

"Alright, alright." Hermione surrendered. "What should I wear?" she asked with a sigh.

"Semi-formal is good." Draco grinned. Everything went according to plan.

--

Hermione was dazzled by the next couple of days' presents, flowers, dates and all the special attention that Draco was giving her. She was getting more confused by the second. She thought of all the options, including that Draco did something wrong and he was trying to make up for it, or that he went completely crazy, she also considered him being very lonely which made her think that he needed company and finally that he was just extremely bored. When she tried to get some answers from him, he always found a way out of giving a proper explanation and she was left with even a bigger riddle than before. She had to admit that she was flattered by all the attention, whatever the reason was, she didn't really mind anymore because it felt nice to be cared about.

She still got surprised though when another morning came with yet another present, this time it was a beautiful necklace that Ginny insisted she put on immediately. It was a thin silver chain with a small pendant which seemed to be a Celtic knot made of silver. Hermione thought it was truly gorgeous. She smiled widely at Draco, who winked back.

"It's beautiful, Hermione!" Ginny gushed as she looked at her with the necklace on. "You are very lucky that Draco loves you so much! He's proving it to you every single day that he's always thinking about you." she sighed dreamily.

As Ginny rambled on, Hermione couldn't pay attention anymore, because what Ginny said got her thinking. She gasped at the possibility. It seemed to fit in the picture easily. How did she not think of it before? But no, it can't be possible. Or could it?

'_He loves me?'_ she thought, still shocked. _'That's impossible… Maybe he likes me more than a friend, but that's it! It can't be anything more.'_ she told herself firmly.

She still had to make sure.

She found him in the living room again. She didn't wait for him to greet her; she stormed right in front of him.

--

"You have to explain everything NOW!" she demanded, not even knowing what she was so angry about. "I don't understand why you're doing all this and it's making me frustrated! You owe me an explanation!"

"Whoa, calm down, please!" Draco quickly got up from the couch to stand before her. "What are you talking about?" he asked cautiously.

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about!" Hermione gestured wildly with both her hands. "Now stop messing around, and tell me the _truth_!" Draco didn't like the way she emphasised "truth" and swallowed hard.

"Alright, calm down!" he took a deep breath. "It's nothing important…" he muttered, not really knowing what to say.

"Draco, please!" Hermione pleaded, she couldn't stand this anymore.

"Okay, fine!" Draco was getting angry now. "If you want to know, here it is. But don't freak out please, because it doesn't matter!" he took another deep breath as she stared at her intently. "I… I have certain feelings for you… I care about you more than a friend…" he was staring at his feet now, wishing he hadn't said anything.

Hermione's eyes opened wide, as she stared at him in shock.

"You… you what?" she took a hesitant step back, slightly shaking her head. It didn't make sense!

"You heard me!" Draco looked up at her now and he couldn't help feeling hurt when he saw her shocked expression. "But I told you not to freak out!" he suddenly realised that he had to change his strategy now that the truth was out.

"Come on, Hermione; don't tell me you didn't see this coming! You must have suspected something." he stared into her eyes waiting for some kind of a response. But she didn't react, so he went on. "Look, we are already trying to make this whole relationship look real, so why not give it a shot to _make it real_?" he looked at her with nothing but honesty in his eyes. "Don't deny that you feel something for me too, at least in the physical sense. Don't make me prove it, okay?" he added quickly as Hermione started shaking her head slowly, but at that she blushed scarlet.

"Okay, fine!" she quickly admitted, still flushed. "You don't have to prove anything, I am attracted to you." she stared at her feet in embarrassment. "But I already told you that I really enjoy being your friend so…" she trailed off as he waved his hand dismissively.

"The fact that you like being my friend only proves that you like my personality as well, which is perfect because we already established that you are attracted to me." he said smugly. "What more do you want?" he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well…" Hermione blushed again. "If you put it like that… I guess…" she was trying to find the right words, totally confused about her own feelings now as well, let alone the situation.

"Alright then!" Draco grinned wolfishly. "It's settled." he stepped closer to her and suddenly she was very aware of his tall muscular body towering over her. Until now she never paid much attention to his approaches, thinking that they were only for show, or out of necessity or even lust, but now it dawned on her that it meant much more. Now they were a real couple. Or they were trying to be anyway…

As he gathered her in his arms and kissed her tentatively, she finally dared to admit to herself how much she liked being close to him. She leaned into him more, enjoying the warmth and she smiled to herself. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all…

--

Harry watched suspiciously as Hermione and Draco entered the Great Hall for dinner. They were holding hands and they seemed more cheerful than usually, smiling at each other and chatting animatedly. As they approached the tables, Draco pulled her in for a kiss and watched her walk to her table with a smile still on his face before he turned to the Slytherins. Harry was even more curious now, Draco's mood seemed to have changed gradually in the last couple of days, and this little scene he shared now with Hermione was more than suspicious to Harry. He tried to see if Ron noticed as well, but of course he was oblivious, chatting to Lavender about a Transfiguration essay they had to write.

"Hey, Hermione." Harry greeted her as she took her seat next to him; her eyes seemed to be glistening with a new glow. "What's up?" he asked maybe a bit more enthusiastically than he normally would have.

"Oh nothing, really." Hermione didn't seem to pay attention to him, she kept on glancing at the blond Slytherin sitting across the Hall. Harry grinned.

"Oh, really?" he coughed slightly to finally get her attention. "So you're telling me that you two are not a _real_ couple now?" he whispered as he leaned close to her ear. She gasped.

"How did you know?!" she whipped her head around to face him with a shocked expression. Harry grinned even more.

"So it's true?" he asked, chuckling. "I'm really happy for you!" he added, with a genuine smile. Hermione smiled back.

"Thanks!" she said. "I'm curious how it will turn out! But I'm really positive about it." she added with another smile.

"Wow, I can't wait to tell Ron!" Harry said, smiling to himself. It would be another one of those I-told-you-so moments.

Hermione smiled back, but Harry could see that her mind was already somewhere else, and from the direction of her glances, it wasn't hard to guess where exactly.

--

**A/N:** I'm soooo sorry for the delay!! I could give you a few excuses (writer's block even though I know exactly what will happen in each chapter, my laptop broke, lot of work, etc), but it still doesn't change anything, so I'm really sorry… It won't happen again (I hope..)!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway!! :) Please REVIEW, it's always really nice for me to see what you think!! :D Thanks!!


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: All HP characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

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Chapter 13

Draco was moving reluctantly towards the Great Hall, deep in thought. He just left Snape's office and was on his way to join his classmates in the Hall to eat dinner. He had to go on another mission the next morning, but that was not what troubled him. It had been only a couple of days since Hermione agreed to have a real relationship with him and though he was sad to leave so soon, he knew everything was going fine between them, he couldn't have been happier.

The other thing Snape told him was bothering him to no end. Snape let him know that Greyback was killed mercilessly by Voldemort the day before, because he was not satisfied by his services. The other werewolves were greatly offended by losing their leader this way, but they were too scared of the Dark Lord to take revenge. Their loyalty to him was deeply shaken, so Draco should have been happy that Voldemort lost the trust of such powerful allies. However, he couldn't even think about that part, because his mind was full of worries about his marriage. Greyback was the reason they were together in the first place, without him it would make no sense for Hermione to stay married. Dumbledore assured them that the wedding bond was breakable, so if Hermione decided to get out, she would have no problem.

Draco wondered that with their new-found relationship being a success so far, would Hermione still want to end their marriage. He was really worried that this was the end of any bond they shared at the moment. He was fairly sure that Hermione would still want to be his friend, but that wasn't even nearly enough for him.

When he reached the Hall, he hesitated for a minute before opening the door; he didn't feel hungry at all at that moment. He entered anyway with a sigh, his eyes immediately locking on the Gryffindor table, searching for the bushy-haired brunette who was surrounded by her friends. As his eyes found her, she looked up and he watched as her eyes lit up and she gave him a beautiful smile, before he smiled back weakly and made his way to his own table. Dinner seemed to drag by, and no matter how badly he wanted to avoid the moment of telling Hermione the news, he also wanted to get it over with. He played with his food, not able to concentrate on anything else; his friends gave up soon with trying to communicate with him.

Finally the time came when Hermione got up from her seat and started walking out of the Hall, still talking to Ginny. After they reached the door, Draco decided to follow after them; he really wanted to talk to Hermione now. He caught up with them in the Entrance Hall, and he quickly made up some excuse to Ginny for needing Hermione, and he dragged her away, annoyed at the redhead's all-knowing smile.

"What's wrong, Draco?" Hermione asked anxiously when they were out of Ginny's hearing range. "Are you okay?"

"Everything's fine…" Draco said wearily; keep pulling Hermione's arm, careful not to hurt her. "Just have to talk to you about something." he added when he saw Hermione's confused expression. She didn't say anything though, until they were inside their living room.

Draco strode over to the couch and sat down, trying hard for his fear not to show on his face. Hermione followed him and sat down next to him, waiting for an explanation.

"I… I have… news." Draco hesitated for a moment; he didn't know whether he should call it bad or good news, so he settled for neither. He nervously brushed his fingers through his hair, not looking directly at Hermione.

"Okay…" Hermione crossed her legs impatiently. "Could you tell me what it is?" she pressed.

"Yeah, that's obviously why I brought you here." Draco rolled his eyes. He looked up at her as he continued. "The thing is that… well, Greyback is dead." he watched her reaction cautiously.

"Oh…" Hermione's eyes opened wide for a second. "That's great, Draco!" she exclaimed after a second, a big smile on her face. Draco's heart started sinking; he saw his greatest fear come true.

"Yeah…" he looked quickly away, trying to hide his sourness. "So when do you want to get divorced?" he added, but his voice clearly gave him away.

"What?" Hermione seemed confused again. "Oh, you're right… I guess we don't have to be married anymore." Draco looked up suddenly at this, she definitely sounded hesitant, unsure.

"But we don't _have_ to get divorced, you know." Draco replied hastily, he didn't care anymore whether he sounded eager or not. "I don't mind staying married until we see how our relationship is going…" he added, seemingly careless, but he watched her closely. Hermione glanced at him, a smile playing at her lips.

"Well, if you _don't mind_, then we can just wait and see how it works out." she said playfully. She clearly knew him enough by now to tell what he really wanted.

Draco's eyes lit up for a second, but he quickly disguised it and shrugged.

"Okay, then." he said, his lips quirking up in a half-smile. "We'll see what happens."

Hermione couldn't help laughing, and she hastily leaned over and pulled his head down, joining their lips in a soft kiss. Draco had other plans though, and deepened the kiss, pressing Hermione down gently on the couch with his own body. Hermione moaned softly as Draco's lips made their way down her neck, making Draco smirk smugly. Draco's head snapped up in annoyance as they were interrupted by loud knocking on the window.

"Damn that stupid owl…" he murmured and quickly returned to his earlier ministrations.

"Draco, we should really see what it is…" Hermione managed to say without gasping as Draco reached her collarbone.

"Fine!" Draco grunted and he reluctantly got up and let the owl in. After reading the message, he turned back to Hermione, who was now in a sitting position.

"It's from Dumbledore. He wants to see us." Draco told her as he scanned the parchment again. "It must be about Greyback's death. We can let him know that we'll wait with the divorce…" he added, looking back up at Hermione, who nodded in agreement.

"Let's go and talk to him then." Hermione said while standing up and walking toward the door.

"Alright…" Draco said, still annoyed. "But let's not forget where we've left off…" he smirked at her and she blushed in response.

--

Hermione couldn't believe that Draco had been gone only for three days, when it seemed like a month to her. He told her he'd be back in a few days, and she was getting increasingly impatient as the minutes ticked by. She missed his closeness, his friendship, his touch, his attention and basically everything about him. It was getting a little scary for her, actually. She forced herself to calm down and relax. It was Friday, so she should be focusing on the next two days of relaxation. Draco could be back any time now.

Hermione was happy they decided to give themselves a chance as a couple, because it seemed to work out perfectly. She knew she would have freaked out completely if someone told her the previous year that she'd be dating (and be willingly married to) Draco Malfoy, but now she just chuckled at the unlikelyness of the turn of events that brought them together like that. She sighed as she tried extremely hard to concentrate on McGonagall's long explanations, but she kept drifting back to daydreaming about Draco.

She was relieved when the class ended, and since that was her last class for the day, she decided to go back to the rooms she shared with Draco. As she walked into the bedroom she gasped in surprise, because Draco was right there, lying down on the double bed, reading a book. When he heard her gasp, he quickly got up, dropping the book on the nightstand and raising his hands apologetically.

"I'm sorry I didn't change from my traveling clothes before getting on the bed, I was just too tir…" he was cut short by Hermione, who flung herself at him and kissed him passionately before he could finish.

"Oh…" was all Draco managed to say, before Hermione pressed harder against him and made both of them fall down on the bed. She straddled Draco, keeping him firmly between her thighs, not letting go of his lips even to breathe.

Though when Draco recovered from the shock, he was not having any of Hermione's dominance and flipped them over in half a second, showering her face and neck with feverish kisses. Hermione moaned in pleasure and she pulled him closer, tugging at his clothes impatiently. Draco groaned in agreement, and started undressing both of them efficiently. With Hermione's help they were both naked in a minute.

Draco couldn't believe his luck, he thought Hermione would need some convincing when he arrived; it was the end of a long week after all. He marveled at the beautiful and willing body beneath him and thanked his lucky stars for letting him have her all to himself. He quietly chuckled to himself when he made her gasp as his kisses found her breast, teasing her slowly with his tongue.

Hermione was having none of the teasing though, and she suddenly grabbed his member and stroked him at an antagonising pace. Draco's knees trembled for a moment and his head fell on Hermione's shoulder, since his hands were unable to support his weight anymore, as he quietly struggled for breath.

"You devil woman…" he murmured as he regained his composure. "Two can play at that game…" he whispered in her ear, making her shiver in anticipation.

He slowly moved one of his hands down her torso, leaving goose bumps after his touch. Finally, he reached his destination, and dipped his fingers between her folds, being deliberately slow. He gasped when he felt her wetness coating his fingers and he continued to move them deeper, still teasing her. Hermione was squirming to feel more of him, but he kept the slow pace as he started pumping his fingers in and out of her.

"Aaaah, Draco…" she moaned, her eyes rolling back into her head. "Please!" she pleaded, her hand still stroking him. Draco couldn't hold himself back anymore; he quickly removed his hand and held onto her hips instead. As Hermione bucked her hips against his, he entered her with a quick thrust, and he cried out in pleasure at the same time as Hermione.

He marveled at the way he fit perfectly inside of her, it made him want to stay like that forever. But when he froze suddenly at the intensity of their connection, Hermione wriggled impatiently underneath him, making him draw out and thrust back in again. As Hermione moved her hips in harmony with his movements, they built up their rhythm and Draco knew he couldn't last much longer. Hermione felt her cheeks flush and was panting together with Draco as their bodies heated up as they moved in unison, she felt moisture all over her skin as they began to sweat.

She gasped loudly as Draco's thrusts became more fervent and powerful, but it was still not enough for her, it just made her want even more. She reached up and pulled his head down to hers, kissing him passionately, their tongues battling for dominance. A moment later he pulled away to breathe and then leaned down, keeping his lips next to her ear.

"Dear God, Hermione, you're so tight…" he whispered huskily and then he teasingly took her earlobe between his teeth, before sucking gently on her neck. Hermione cried out his name and tumbled over the edge, dragging him with her. He emptied himself deep in her core, and after a couple of weak thrusts, they just lay there, completely boneless.

Draco forced himself back from the border of dreamless sleep and carefully pulled a blanket over their still hot bodies and smiled as Hermione snuggled closer to his chest. He kissed her forehead gently and lay his head next to hers.

"I love you so much…" he breathed and he couldn't fight the need to sleep anymore, so he finally let his eyes close.

Hermione smiled when she heard him and hugged him even closer as her own dreams found her as well.

--

Hermione made her way tiredly to the Gryffindor tower the next afternoon, it was the first time that day that she left the bedroom and it was only because Draco had Quidditch practice. He didn't want to go first, but she convinced him that he needed the practice, since in the last month he barely made it to any of them. Draco finally agreed, but he still wasn't happy about it. Hermione chuckled to herself as she reached the portrait hole and looked for her friends immediately when she entered.

"Someone has been really busy lately!" Ginny teased when Hermione joined her and Harry and Ron. "You must have _really_ missed each other in the last few days!" she added with a giggle. Harry and Ron made a disgusted face and rolled their eyes, starting a conversation about Quidditch, pointedly turning away from them.

Hermione laughed at their reaction and turned back to her friend, who, very disturbingly, wanted to hear the details. Hermione luckily managed to steer the conversation in a different direction, so the others could join them as well.

After a few hours of chatting and doing homework, despite the reluctance of Harry and Ron, Hermione told them that she was going to spend the evening with Draco, because he had to leave again the next morning. Before she reached the portrait hole, Harry caught up with her and asked her if he could walk her back. She got the feeling that he wanted to talk to her about something, so she quickly agreed.

"So, what do you want to tell me, Harry?" Hermione asked immediately when they were in the corridor.

"You know me too well for my own good." Harry chuckled, but then his face turned serious. "I wanted to let you know that I have been away on secret missions as well…" Hermione's eyes opened in surprise, and she opened her mouth to answer, but Harry didn't let her. "Yes, I know you're mad I didn't tell you, but trust me, it was better this way. Dumbledore was there most of the time, so you have nothing to worry about." he assured her quickly.

"Is this about the Horcruxes?" Hermione asked, her eyes still wide from the shock and now also from fear.

"Yes, it is." Harry confirmed as they were walking towards their destination. "We destroyed them all, apart from the snake." Hermione gasped in surprise, not able to say anything. Harry smiled at her wearily. "I guess you know what this means… The final battle is near. We cannot get to the snake without getting close to Voldemort. We need a way to confront them and use their surprise to our advantage. I think Dumbledore has a plan already, but he hasn't told me anything yet." Hermione nodded in understanding, staring at the empty corridor before her.

"Well, I guess that's good news." Hermione finally said. "But I can't help being extremely scared. Not for myself of course, but for you. For everyone I love…" she barely whispered the last couple of words.

"We don't really have a choice." Harry said gravely. "At least we have a good chance now." he added, comforting her by putting an arm around her shoulder. Hermione leaned her head against him, thankful for his understanding. When they reached the entrance, Hermione turned back to Harry.

"If there's anything new, please…" she trailed off, but Harry understood.

"I'll let you know, of course." he assured her, and they parted with a last hug.

When Hermione was already inside, she thought of all the people she feared for.

'_Well, now there's a new addition to that list…'_ she thought sourly as she sat down, waiting for Draco.

--

**A/N:** Hey everyone, sorry for the slightly shorter chapter, hope you still like it. There's only one chapter left, so I hope you'll stick with this story a bit longer. :) I'm a bit worried that you don't like where the story is going, since I got less reviews for the last chapter than usually.. Well, hopefully you'll like this one more! ;)

Please REVIEW!! :) (Whether you liked it or not!!) Thanks a lot!!


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all HP characters, places, etc belong to JKR.

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Chapter 14

Hermione couldn't believe that the final battle was already upon them. Harry told her that according to Snape, Voldemort was planning the attack for the next day, so now everyone was getting ready, building barricades, setting up safety spells and so on. Hermione knew that this was obviously unavoidable and in some ways she was happy that the whole war was coming to an end and that she was going to be able to participate in saving everyone they loved. She went back to her bedroom tiredly after a whole day of preparing, it was a Thursday, but they decided to cancel all classes that day. They sent most underage witches and wizards to safety, so their number was extremely reduced now. However, since they had a basic idea of Voldemort's plan, they still had an advantage over them.

When she stepped through the door into the living room, she was thinking how lucky they were to have Dumbledore on their side; it gave her hope. She knew Draco would be back any minute now, so she cleaned herself up in the bathroom and got ready for bed. She was beginning to get impatient and just when she decided to go and make herself a cup of tea, Draco stepped through the door wearily. Hermione's face lit up with sudden happiness as she ran to him and hugged him tightly. Their relationship was blossoming, she felt increasingly closer to him. Draco laughed as he hugged her back and kissed her briefly, walking her back to the bedroom.

"How are you?" Hermione asked cautiously as she took in his disheveled appearance. "You should sleep as soon as possible." she added and Draco nodded in agreement.

"I'm alright." he answered. "But it's okay, since they are most likely to come in the afternoon or in the evening, so we can sleep in." he added with a small smile.

"I still don't understand how we know all this…" Hermione wondered aloud. "Plus, why did they decide to come _now_? Not much changed in the last few weeks. That they know of at least…" she added.

"Well…" Draco smiled all-knowingly. "I guess there's no harm in telling you now…" he said, increasing Hermione's curiosity. "You know the missions I had been on?" he asked and Hermione nodded. "I was actually helping Snape lay a false trail of clues for Voldemort, so he'd think that we were getting outnumbered because a lot of our people were fleeing from the country. So he thinks that they definitely have the advantage. Also, about the date, he thinks that Snape gave Harry detention in the Forbidden Forest tomorrow, so he's planning to catch him unguarded…" as he went on, Hermione's eyes widened in surprise and her jaw dropped. Draco smirked at her reaction.

"Wow…" Hermione muttered after a minute of silence. "That's… wow…" she was at a loss for words, and Draco smiled back at her smugly, clearly very proud of himself. Hermione smiled back, seeing his smugness, and hugged him again.

"I can't believe you did all that!" she exclaimed happily as Draco kissed the top of her head. "That's amazing! I'm so proud of you!" Draco laughed happily.

"That's good…" he guided her toward the bed. "Because I can think of a few ways you could reward me." he suggested playfully. Hermione laughed and smacked his arm for the implication, but followed him to bed anyway.

--

They woke up late in the morning, so Hermione was in a rush to get ready, and Draco was just laughing at her from the bed.

"What are you hurrying for?" he chuckled. "Everything is ready; all we have to do is dress up and eat… Plus I set up the Room of Requirement with Potter yesterday for you and the Weasley girl and a couple of others I think, so you'll be safe, don't worry…" Hermione stormed back in the room from the bathroom when she heard that, and Draco couldn't finish when he saw her face. "What?" he asked incredulously.

"You… thought… that _I_ would just sit around and wait for you to finish fighting?!" she asked, desperately trying to stay calm.

"Are you _mad_ at me?" Draco asked, still staring at her, dumbfounded.

"Of course I am mad at you!" Hermione raised her voice. "Who do you think I am? Some little helpless girl, who can't defend herself? Well, you're wrong!" she started pacing back and forth by the bed, with Draco still staring at her with wide eyes.

"But what else can I do?" he asked helplessly. "I can't have you in that much danger! I would go crazy with worry!" he shut up quickly as he saw the murderous look on her face.

"And what do you expect _me_ to do, huh?" she screamed at him. "Just stay put, be useless and wonder what might happen to you?!" Hermione was so mad that she was scared she might do something that she'd regret later – like set him on fire or something.

"Well, yeah…" he muttered sheepishly. "Whatever it takes to keep you safe…" he didn't dare glancing up at her.

"That is just great!" Hermione fumed. "Do you know how selfish you are? I could really help you out there, you know! I'm not the smartest witch of my generation for no reason…" she went on anxiously. "And you know what? I don't need your permission. I don't care if I have to duel you myself, I'll be out there fighting for everything I believe in and for everyone I love…" now it was her turn to trail off as she turned again and saw Draco's vicious glare.

"That is absolutely out of the question!" he said in a clear and deep, no-nonsense voice. In another second, he was standing – distractingly half naked – in front of her, glaring down at her angrily. "I will not allow it." he informed her calmly. Hermione's momentary hesitation was out the window the moment she heard him say that.

"Watch me…" she spat and she stormed out of the room.

--

Two hours later, Hermione was sitting in the corner of the Room of Requirement angrily, her legs and arms crossed, glaring at the wall. Ginny was there right next to her, equally angry, fuming to herself, and uncharacteristically quiet.

"They can't do this to us, you know!" Hermione finally said, her voice quiet, but filled with suppressed anger. "It's just unfair! Just 'cause they're boys…" she finished the sentence quietly to herself, muttering darkly, clearly deciding that it made no difference whether she voiced her opinion or not.

"You are right." Ginny spat in response, glaring viciously out the window, and tapping her foot in annoyance. "I still can't believe Harry dared to do this to me… And Ron is such a traitor! He'll get it from me later for siding with them…" she cursed under her breath.

There were about three other girls who were deemed not safe enough to fight by their overprotective friends or boyfriends, and who were equally annoyed by their situation. They all tried getting out for a while, but they were basically locked in, since the teachers didn't bother to argue with the unreasonable bastards – Hermione thought bitterly – and agreed to keep them prisoners. The teachers must have been cautious not to let anything distract their best fighters.

"Pfff…" was Hermione's only response to that thought. _'Best fighters, my ass…'_

Then she was suddenly distracted by a loud banging noise, and in half a second they were all pressed up against one of the windows to get a better view of what was happening on the grounds. There was smoke coming from the direction of the old trees of the forest, and a moment later colourful sparks were flying in every direction from the same place, though they couldn't see any people from their position.

'_So it begins…'_ Hermione thought, feeling her heart sink and her breath quicken from enormous and absolute fear. _'And I can't even be there by their side to help them the best I can…'_ she thought sourly as she got pushed back by the other girls from her position by the window, and she drifted back slowly and thoughtlessly to her previous seat. Now her primary feeling was not anger anymore.

--

The next two hours felt like a lifetime for both Hermione and Ginny, who were either pacing back and forth impatiently or just sitting lifeless, staring into space. Not-knowing was the worst part of this, but right after that came not-being-able-to-do-anything on the list. Hermione thought she would go insane if she had to sit still for another minute. That was the moment that Luna chose to appear through a door that suddenly appeared on the wall, her clothes ragged, her face dirty, covered in tears.

"Oh my God!" Hermione screamed in unison with Ginny, and they both ran forward to embrace her. "Luna! What happened? Are you okay?" Hermione urged as they helped her in one of the comfortable armchairs.

"I'm fine." Luna assured them; curiously her voice seemed calm in contrast with her appearance. "It's just… Ron…" and she choked on her words, with even more tears flowing freely from her eyes. Hermione and Ginny gasped at her words, terror plastered on their faces, Ginny stumbled back into one of the chairs.

"Is he…" Hermione couldn't bring herself to finish. Luna silently nodded, her eyes glued to the floor. They were in absolute silence, no one was able to move, their previous expressions stuck on their features. Finally Ginny's loud sobs broke the silence.

The next moment she was on her feet again, her face murderous as she lunged herself at the door. Hermione threw herself after her, holding her back as she tried to calm her desperately.

"I want to go!" Ginny screamed in a rage. "Those cruel bastards will pay for this! I swear they will curse this day for the rest of their miserable lives!" she shouted between sobs, fighting against Hermione's hold.

"If you go now, you'll put yourself in unnecessary danger. They are doing fine without you." Luna's quiet but calm voice made Ginny freeze. "Don't risk what he died for. The ones he loved most." her words seemed to echo in the silence of the room. Everyone stood or sat still as they contemplated Luna's words. Hermione slowly let go of Ginny, who seemed lifeless now, her cheeks and eyes red.

"I made my decision." she said quietly as she turned slowly to Hermione.

-- €£€ --

The room's atmosphere was the same for the following days – hours – or probably just minutes. Hermione completely lost track of time as they waited desperately for something to happen. Ginny was standing in front of the window, staring blankly outside. The rest of them were still as well, Hermione joined Luna and they were holding onto each other's hands for support.

Then the silence broke with a sudden bang as someone almost broke down the door as he burst in. There was a moment of silence as they all stared at the panting newcomer.

"DRACO!" Hermione squealed after she came to her senses and she lunged herself at him, sobbing loudly on his shoulder. He was breathless for a second, then he hugged her tightly to himself, slowly breathing in the sweet fragrance of her hair that always seemed to calm him so efficiently. "I love you! I love you! _I love you_!" Hermione whispered in his ear between half-sobs, half-relieved-chuckles. She knew now without a doubt that she loved him and it felt good to be able to tell him how she felt. "Please don't leave me again! I can't stand this ever again, you hear me?" Draco was at a loss for words as he heard her confession, and at that moment he thought it was impossible to feel an ounce happier than he felt at that moment.

"I love you too, darling." he whispered back huskily, drinking in every word she said.

Then they were suddenly interrupted by the crowd that was surrounding them, they seemed to have just woken up from their trance of seeing Draco there. Hermione refused to let go of him though, but of course he didn't seem to mind at all, he held onto her possessively.

"What happened?"

"Is everyone okay?"

"Is it over?"

"Did we win?" came the questions from every direction.

Draco looked around at them for a second, confused. He himself looked completely healthy, not a scratch, though his robes were torn and there were black smears on him everywhere, even on his face. There must have been a fire in the woods.

"Ummm…" he didn't seem to know which one to answer first. "Yes, it's over… and we won." he was interrupted by happy exclamations and relieved sighs from everyone.

"Is Harry okay?" asked Ginny anxiously, who was unusually quiet and was still standing near the window, her eyes blank.

"Yes, he's fine. He killed Voldemort." Draco smiled weakly at her, ignoring the impressed gasps. "He's helping the injured." Ginny nodded, a small smile appearing on her face, but the she turned back to the window. Draco looked back at Hermione with a confused expression, and then realisation hit him and he glanced back at Ginny's fragile form with sympathy.

"We should go down to help." Hermione said wearily, but happy that finally she could do something useful. Everyone nodded in agreement.

--

Hermione was stumbling around the Great Hall, where they collected all their injured, and was trying to help in any way she could. She was happy she practiced some of the simpler healing spells earlier, now she made good use of them. Her mind was clouded with grief, which still overshadowed the happiness she felt for winning and for not losing most of her loved ones. The tears still wouldn't stop streaming down her face as the faces of her lost loved ones swam around in front of her eyes.

Professor McGonagall.

Lupin.

Kingsley.

Mad Eye.

Neville.

Ron… Ron… _Ron…_

She fought back a sob as she tended to Dean Thomas' lighter wounds. She felt dizzy and nauseous and fought against the urge to just lie down and cry her heart out or simply faint from the pain. She forced herself to think positively as much as it was possible so she can still be of use somehow. They won. Voldemort was gone. Most of the Order was away, catching the remaining and now fleeing Death Eaters. Dumbledore was alive, though with serious injures, currently at St Mungo's, but they said he'll be fine. Voldemort hit him with a curse and so took him out of the fight before Harry finally defeated him. Harry was fine. Her parents were fine. The rest of the Weasleys were fine… Draco was fine… Draco… She looked up involuntarily, her eyes searching for his husband. He was across the Hall, still bringing more people inside. She smiled faintly as he looked back at her, watching him smile back.

She turned around again, going to her next patient. The rest of the evening dragged by, and the next thing she knew was that they were having a celebration and memorial feast, the people with the more serious injuries were sent to the hospital, the rest of them felt well enough now to gather to remember the bravery of all of those who they lost and commemorate their victory. The house tables were placed back to their original position, but no one was sitting according to houses anymore and the teachers' table was now empty, because they joined them at the other tables as well.

The feast was rather quiet and solemn; the time of unlimited joy and happiness had not yet come. Hermione was sitting between Harry and Draco. Harry seemed extremely tired and worn out, grief was apparent on his face. Hermione knew that he missed Ron dearly, because she felt exactly the same way. Draco was very calm and even happy; he recently heard the news that his mother was well and safe, so his efforts paid off.

Hermione stared up at him for a second and decided that finally it was time to tell him.

"Draco, I have news." she whispered in his ear, leaning close so no one else would hear. She hesitated for a brief moment, but then continued. "There's a baby on its way…" she waited anxiously for his reaction and relaxed into a smile when she saw him turn to her with a widest and happiest smile she's ever seen on his face.

"You're pregnant?" he whispered back, his eyes glowing with happiness. Hermione nodded happily. He leaned closer again. "I would jump up and spin you around and shout from happiness like a fool, but I'm guessing this is not the right time for that…" he smiled sheepishly and kissed her cheek tenderly. Hermione giggled quietly in response.

"There's a time for everything." she winked at him and gave him a brief kiss before sighing happily and turning back to her food. She was amused as she watched Draco throughout the feast; he just couldn't keep the grin off of his face.

But Hermione didn't mind at all. She finally found her happy ending as well.

_The End _

--

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**A/N:** Well, that's it then…:D Or is it? ;) I still have a surprise for you – this was not the original ending I planned for this story, but I changed my mind to this happy ending. If you're curious though, read the other version as well, which I'll post soon. After that, this story will be officially over. I'm not planning any sequels at the moment.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with this story till the very end, I really appreciate it! :) You gave me most of my motivation! So thanks again, specially to those who reviewed!! :D

So please, (again) REVIEW!! It would really mean a lot to me if you let me know what you think! Thanks!!


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